5 Steps to Sync Sales and Marketing Teams

According to research conducted by Aberdeen, properly coordinated sales and marketing teams show a 400% higher annual growth compared to other teams. Marketing and sales are two major revenue drivers for a company. If a company was a human organism, marketing would be the brain, while sales would be the heart. Marketers build fame while the sales teams gain trust, and loyalty. These two departments are interrelated, yet function separately. Misalignments between sales and marketing result in poor strategy execution and frustration.

This article will reveal the five steps which align sales & marketing teams and also explain how CRM could streamline communication across both teams to drive better results to your business. Step 1. Define Company Strategy & Goals 45% of businesses work without a clear digital strategy which means they don’t fully recognize their competitors, users or market share. Both the sales and marketing departments aim for company growth but they use different means. Sales teams do monthly revenue plans and usually set up short term goals that drive immediate results. The marketing teams build an evergreen pipeline of quality leads that won’t be affected by season, holidays or any other external factors. And their relationships directly affect your marketing strategy:

The company leader should define one revenue plan for the company, while the marketing team with the assistance of sales should create buyer personas to help both teams speak the same language. Step 2. Develop Common Language When it comes to basic department needs, speaking the same language directly affects both marketing and sales efforts. Marketing should provide the sales team with full information on the channel where the leads have interacted with the product, and the touchpoints they’ve had. Hence, the sales team would provide potential buyers with a truly tailored experience.

Sharing information between the marketing and sales teams should be done in a common space. This communication chain will allow both teams to stay on the same page by organizing data about marketing channels, leads and navigate through tons of information.

The catalyst that will align the sales and marketing team could be the CRM software. Integrating the CRM system will enable both teams to work with the same data, share updates and create comprehensive reports. Perfectly organized data would improve customer service and increase the number of loyal users:

Step 3. Integrate CRM System CRM helps the marketing and sales team store optimization and feedback loops, see the top-performing digital channels and is a better way to communicate with the customer. If your team works primarily from Gmail, you could start with the Gmail integrated CRM.

The Gmail CRM can work in the form of a Chrome extension in your Gmail account and is the perfect place to keep all your correspondence in one place. CRM for Gmail is a software which is fully integrated into your account after installation. It helps you manage your pipelines, centralize your communication & send tailored bulk emails to customers.

Sales teams сan keep customer records in one place using the Gmail CRM. This workflow automation helps reduce up to 40% manual work and helps dedicate more time to customers, and less time to routine. CRM also helps evaluate the deals at an earlier stage and also withdraws from inefficient ones at an early stage of the sales process. Sales reps can set up reminders and schedule follow-ups to support efficient communication with their customer. The graphic below shows which tasks take the most time for a salesperson (spoiler: not selling).

To marketers, Gmail-integrated CRM is a source of deep insights into customer behavior. By analyzing the workflow, they can dig deeper and find the downsides of their strategies, discover customer pain points and re-think their strategies way before it’s too late.

The Marketing team, on the other hand, can get deep insights into the best-performing marketing channels, customer behavior, and user journey. Gmail CRM software is fundamental to your company strategy but is useless if a strategy hasn't been thought out yet. CRM is a handy tool for nurturing your customer relations, automating your work routine and keeping track of your inbox so you never lose a single incoming email again.

One of the most popular solutions for small and mid-size companies is Nethunt CRM. It is easy-to-use software which can be integrated into your Gmail account. According to G2Crowd reviews, NetHunt is proven to be one of the most popular and trusted CRM solutions for both marketing and sales teams.

We needed an easy solution to use in our sales and marketing departments and found that the NetHunt Gmail integrated CRM worked best for us. The pricing plan is more than affordable, and the support team is just amazing! They helped us to fully integrate CRM in just 2 Skype sessions.

NetHunt tracks performance and keeps all the info about closed deals and revenue. It has been perfect for us so far. — Nina Bohush, Digital Marketer on G2Crowd

Step 4. Measure & Evaluate Choosing the metrics to track is the first step to measure your CRM return on investment. Sometimes, in the rush for pro-features, you might forget that you only have a small company of ten people who won’t use it in their daily routine. Start small: define the vital stats to track and add new metrics as your company evolves.

CRM systems utilize the variety of performance metrics which help the sales & marketing teams optimize their activity. After integrating the CRM software, you don’t need any complicated metrics to track. Start with the basic performance indicators and move on to more complicated ones as your company grows. 

This list of basic СRM metrics will help you get insights on what’s working and what’s not, in order to further optimize your activity:

Conversion rate shows the number of conversions in relation to the total number of visitors. According to CRM, it’s the number of leads who converted into clients. See how it looks in Nethunt CRM:

  

Customer Retention Rate is the percentage of loyal customers a company has retained over a certain period of time in your CRM. Keeping up with the great relationships between existing customers can cost you 7x less than customer acquisition.

Churn Rate the percentage of clients that your company lost over a certain time period.

Winback Rate shows the percentage of bounced or inactive customers, who purchased your product/service over a certain period of time. To keep the winback rate high, use remarketing in your ad campaigns and offer inactive customers bonuses or discounts in your emails.

The team lead can also find useful performance metrics to track the efficiency of the sales team:

The number of emails sent helps you evaluate the sales activity over a given time period.

Email open rate is the percentage of your email list subscribers who opened an email campaign. You can easily schedule email campaigns and follow-ups in your Gmail CRM, which is proven to show a higher open rate than a third-party solution outside of Gmail.

The number of new contacts added weekly/monthly. A growing user base is crucial for company evolution. CRM helps understand the dynamics of the user base and avoids duplicates.

The number of monthly deals closed shows how many new deals salespeople close in a month and shows the revenue generated. We all know the end-of-month time crunch, when the sales team is rushing to close as many deals as possible. CRM software helps evaluate these deals and calculates the win rate.

Step 5. Review & Improve According to a recent study, CRM helps to improve productivity by 50%, while sales productivity improves by 65%. The myth of the complexity of the Gmail CRM adoption will vanish as soon as you start implementing it to align your sales & marketing teams. 

If you aim to improve your revenue by 20%, your marketing team should work on the acquisition channels. While the sales team needs to either increase the average check, or close more deals. The relevant metrics then would be conversion rate, deal size and more.

Gmail CRM software automates the daily routine, reduces manual work, and keeps all the massive data organized. Start small: download the Gmail CRM Chrome extension and use it for business goals. The sales team can benefit from perfectly organized customer records stored inside the Gmail inbox: client profiles, all deals, email tracking, easy bulk email campaign setup, and much more. The marketing team can use CRM to improve their marketing strategy, re-think marketing channels and drive quality leads to the sales team.

According to Capterra, 24% of users consider CRM functionality the most valuable factor in their purchasing decision. NetHunt CRM for Gmail brings extensive customization capabilities to your workflow: you can adjust every CRM aspect to your specific business needs and be sure that our support team will help you on every stage of the CRM integration.

Competitive strategy combined with powerful and easy-to-use CRM minimizes the risk of losing track of leads. "Implement, tailor, test, measure and repeat" is the golden rule for every company aimed at becoming an industry game changer.

Eager to learn more about NetHunt CRM? Discover the full list of NetHunt CRM features for your business or schedule a demo with our team to find out more!

Why Hire SEO Expert in Austin for SEO of Your Business?

Search engine optimization has become quintessential for every business in today’s time. If your business is not visible online, you are as good as not at all having an online presence. And when you realize the importance of SEO for your local business, the first thing that comes into mind is how to do it and that too at minimum cost. Well, DIY is one way to go, hiring an SEO expert in Austin is other, and postponing is another.

Hiring professional SEO experts for SEO of your local business has many benefits. Let’s have a look at some of the key benefits.

Right SEO

Anyone can start SEO. There is no compulsion that only professionals are allowed to do it. But the question is, are you capable of doing it right? There are many practices that when you implement it on your website, your SEO results will be endangered. And getting wrong in DIY SEO is not difficult. All it requires is some misunderstanding of Google algorithms or following a wrong DIY SEO guide. You may be following unethical strategies which could result in your website getting permanently banned or removed from search results. Hence, you end up doing more harm than good. On the other hand, professionals have the right training, skills, and expertise. They know what works and what doesn’t and how to achieve desired results.

Improve website

For many years, SEO means stuffing keyword. Hence, many people easily become so-called SEO experts, but today, SEO has changed a lot. Google considers everything forms relevance of content to website speed, ease of navigation, and HTML tags. When you hire professionals, every little aspect of your website gets improved. They will improve your website loading speed, interface & navigation, build backlinks, add listings, and optimize the website for the right keywords. One cannot address the technical aspects without the right training and skills.

Focus on results

SEO is not about just getting any kind of traffic. There is a huge difference between traffic oriented SEO and result oriented SEO. There is no point of getting website traffic that does not convert. An SEO expert in Austin makes sure your website get quality web traffic that has higher chances of conversion. They follow the SEO strategies that not only focus on ranking your website but getting more conversions. You may have also heard about many people saying they have been doing SEO for many years, but still, haven't achieved the top rankings for competitive keywords. Well, it is the result of poor SEO. Professionals perform proper keyword research, audit website, and prepare the result-driven SEO strategy for your website.

Simplified reporting

Analytics play a big role in the success of your SEO campaign. And navigating through your Google Analytics to determine conversion rates, acquisition channels, tracking keywords rankings, split testing landing pages, evaluating bounce rate, and tracking down the results is not at all an easy task. It requires certain skills and knowledge to deal with analytics. An SEO expert in Austin prepares the reports for you in a simplified manner without technical jargon, which will allow you to understand the results of SEO efforts easily and prepare a plan of action.

HOW TO BE A INSTAGRAM MAKEUP ARTIST

Instagram is one of the most in trend social media platform where you easily get a chance to show off your skills of makeup which eventually helps you to build up your own empire that motivates and appreciates your distinctive style. Though it can be quite a deal to make to stand out among humongous other Instagram make-up artist, you need to make your 100% efforts to know what exactly that magical potion looks like!

Becoming a well known Instagram makeup artist won’t happen overnight, but at least will take a couple of months or years for your followers to understand your skills!

So to cut short that time of waiting for you, we have concluded some of the best tips and tricks for all of you budding makeup artists, to join this competition and showcase your talent and skills into this field of the Instagram makeup artist.

In fact, Importance of Instagram is still yet to exploited by the usage of the amazing features of this platform just to showcase the brand presence with the help of makeup artist tool, which not only helps you to enhance your followers but also helps you to be popular among your peers.

Keep reading to get the furthest equations to win Instagram with the help of your skills! Trust me you will thank me later!

Ingenious – is the new trend

One of the most important things that one must remember being a user of Instagram is that, if you want to be the best Instagram makeup artist then, all of the content that gets posted on your profile must be original. Never do a blunder of copying the work of others as it would do no good o you or your work.

Being original is appreciated everywhere, irrespective of the industry that you are into!

 

Occupy your space in the community

The other thing which matters a lot is the way you engage yourself with followers as well as with the community! One technique through which you can easily make up your place within your people is to utilize the feature of updating stories along with uploading images, commenting and posting as well.

If you feel that you are including some other people in your images and videos make sure to tag them, this eventually helps to enhance your visibility and make new Instagram friends.

Showcasing your skills helps you to gain more followers!

 

Optimize your profile

The other thing which is like a mandatory step for you is to optimize your profile and make it look attractive and innovative for your followers. You can even use Instagram auto liker to enhance your profile visibility. Bring in the Instagram makeup artist tool of yours and let your people appreciate your work by following you.

 

Never forget to use – Hashtags

Images and pictures are one of the excellent modes through which you can easily tell the story you want your followers to tell. When you add great captions and hashtags to your pictures, it exactly acts like a cherry on the cake as it helps to enhance the visibility of your post.

When you elaborate your picture with the help of captions, relevant hashtags and with the help of some makeup artist tools, it gives your viewers a way to enjoy the story your picture is telling, eventually leading your picture to be more popular!

As an Instagram makeup artist make it a priority to add the hashtags of all the products and the brands that you use either in the picture or in the video as it helps your viewers to dive a small description of the products that you use.

Tip**

Always review the hashtags that you are about to use to watch out the engagement of that particular hashtags, also it provides you with an idea of whether you are using it at the right place or not.

Get used to Instagram make-up artist tool

There are ample Instagram make-up artist tools available in the market that helps you to enhance your Instagram popularity with the help of safe as well as organic interaction with the genuine people on Instagram.

The advantage goes on and on as it also gives you an opportunity to find the most relevant hash tags as well as usernames for your posts. In fact, many tools also provide a feature which helps you to enhance your popularity via location determination.

 

Review the products you use

An Instagram makeup artist will always have their favorite lip color or the best eye shadow, which probably you don’t see much of the people using! With this platform, you have access to showcase your favorite piece to make up to the world, recommend it, review it, and make people aware of it!

 

Maintain your creativity and aesthetics

 Being a good Instagrammers you exactly know what to do! The first thing which must strike your mind is that will your post look appropriate on your profile page or are there any other things which can be done to make it look a perfect masterpiece on your profile.

Try to work according to a constant theme or a pattern so that your followers exactly know what you are the pro at!

 

Become a Pro in your art

A thing which is pretty obvious is that no one wants or likes to follow an amateur! So, to get rid of this point, you must make it a point to start working as a professional! Though you can become one with the help of practice, but if you join a professional school for your skills it will for sure help you in many ways. So before you start to make your videos always make it a point to make it look like a professional video!

 

Bottom Line!

The last thing which I would like to highlight is that your competitors are your actual motivations! As an Instagram makeup artist you might face a bit difficulty in your initial phase, but there are many makeup artist tools available which helps you to enhance your organic growth. Get going with the above points, they will for sure help you to shine out of all odds!

Revamp your business style with Spectrum Metro Noida

Spectrum Metro proffered retail shops, offices spaces, studio apartments at the best prices, located at Sector 75, Noida.

The competition has increased quite a bit over the past few years, and has made it really tough to get at least enough returns of your investments. Stand tall in this highly competitive era with Spectrum Metro that is among the top projects in noida because of the luxury services it is offering. If you are also among those people who are almost fed up of their on-going returns then Spectrum Metro Noida is more than a perfect destination for you that will steer your business a furthermore towards its goal. This is among the best commercial property in noida that will lay a perfect foundation for your business and gonna help it grow a bit faster. If you have that pep in you and want to kick-start your business with maximum value for your investments right from the start then you can surely go for this project without a doubt. This project will help those people too who have tried at the level most for the good returns but doesn’t manage to get those either. What put this commercial property ahead of any other project is the facilities that it is offering. 

Spectrum Metro Sector 75 Noida is among the best commercial property in noida with assured return that has next-gen Retail Shops with ahead of the time facilities. You won’t get these many facilities in any other project. Not just that, This project is in a midst of a residential hub where more than lakhs of families are already residing that will benefit your business for sure. This venture will amaze both investors and the visitors with the top-notch construction quality which is quite evident in it. Spectrum Metro Retail Shops are crafted in a foremost location at Sector -75, Noida with almost the entire city well-tied up to this project. This project will keep those people interested who want to own a shop in a place that suits absolutely everyone and you will get an excellent accessibility from absolutely all places of the city. This is one of the best projects in noida that will push your business further with a manoeuvre and you don’t need to be tense whatsoever for your returns. Witness your business burgeon with this exceptionally designed commercial project. If you want to stop your long run of worst returns then this project can let you get good value of your investments.

To get more details, click here: http://www.spectrummetronoida.net

Marketing - What You Can Expect From A Good Productized Service Software

By Shalini Madhav

Productized services are simplified and focus the business marketing operation into a more predictable model that is easier to sell. The services are packaged in such a way that they are more like products which sell easily. Most service providers are productizing their services because of the various benefits they come with including:

Increased revenues

Improved company cash flow

Reduced stress in managing and running the business

Improved scalability of the business

Whereas there are different ways of productizing your services, getting software designed for such can make things even easier for you. When you take your time in finding the right software you will enjoy lots of benefits. If you are just getting familiar with productized service software option, here are some of the things you can expect to enjoy when you get a reliable one for your business.

Ease of building order forms - Traditional shopping carts can be complicated, but with the tight software for your productized service, you can design one page form for selling the services. On the form you can create an easy process that covers everything to do with orders.

Track payments - Good productized service software will log all payments, whether they are one time or recurring so you can keep track of them. With such a feature, it becomes easy for you to know when customers are billed, when payments fail and even when subscriptions are canceled.

Ease of delivering orders - Any good and reliable software will offer access to the order management system so you are able to keep your contractors, virtual assistants and your company team all on the same page. This way, you can see order status, all messages related to it and who is working on the order. It is a more streamlined process of delivering the orders compared to other processes.

Customization abilities - Using the right software will make it possible for you to customize everything you need to including email notifications, messages and navigation items. It requires a templating system that is reliable to achieve this so you can create a client panel that is appealing in every sense.

Ease of collecting project information - The truth is that customers do not like those lengthy forms they are asked to fill during a checkout. The forms can actually be lots of confusion and even end up negatively impacting sales. But by getting right productized service software, you will make it possible for clients to place orders and give you the other details you need later. Giving them the freedom of submitting details when they are ready is better than frustrating them with forms when they really need a service from you instead.

Improved user experience - When customers are in a position to manage their own order, download services and even keep track of their subscriptions they feel part of the process improving their experience of working with you greatly. Your good software should be able to give them such features so they feel confident working with you and in turn become repeat customers.

SPP is among the best    productized service software you can choose for your business. It has all the right features to save you from manual data entry and chaotic management of everything else relevant to the business.

How to Get More Customers in My Store or Business

By Amber Causey

Lets face it. Now more than ever, people have the power of choice in choosing their products and services. We have to compete with all those other businesses that are trying hard to provide similar services and to the exact same people we are trying to convert into customers. How do you get people to notice you and buy your product over someone else?

The answer is simple: you must become one with your customer; you have to put yourself in the mindset of future customers by honing in on their natural tendencies, thoughts and instincts. Once you understand what drives your ideal customers, you can start providing them value by crafting your marketing and products towards helping them solve their problems (i.e. saving them time, providing a professional product quickly, saving them money).

How to think like your customer

Marketing gurus recommend coming up with a buying persona or an ideal customer. This requires really brainstorming about who you are trying to sell to. Traditionally, people automatically just think of demographics (age, gender, location, income, etc). However, your ideal customer has so much more to tell you if you are willing to do some research.

Really think about:

What do they value/care about
Where do they frequently go
Where do they get their information
What do they do every day
What is a problem they have that you can solve
Why wouldn't they use your product

Case in Point: A Well Known Chicken Sandwich Restaurant

Anyone who knows me, knows that my family loves this chicken sandwich restaurant... their food, their atmosphere, their culture! Why do you think they make a point to display their "wholesome" values? It's because they have done their research and they know that their customers care about showing courtesy, family involvement, ambient Christian background music, etc. At most fast food restaurants, customer service is key but this restaurant takes their good customer service a step further. All of their employees reply with "My Pleasure" when they are thanked. This is something so simple but customers take notice of it and appreciate the courtesy and they come away feeling valued!

Where do you get information about your client's values?

OK. So, I have sold you on why its important to think like your customer and figure out what attracts them. But where do you get this information if you are a small business without the budget of a marketing department?

GOOGLE IS YOUR FRIEND: Type into Google your keyword and groups/forums/meet ups (i.e. "moms groups", "new moms forums", "moms meet ups in Fayetteville NC"). Read up on where your ideal customer can be found and what they are talking about.

Google Analytics: If you haven't set up a Google Analytics account for your website, do it! Google collects tons of demographic information for you about viewers on your website. It can tell you where people are searching for your business, age, if they are using their phones to research you, how long they are spending on your page, and much more.

Go to Bookstores: Go to a bookstore or library. Look at books and magazines targeting your assumed target customers. What topics do they cover? What ads do they use? How often do they publish new information?

Imitation is the Greatest form of flattery: Let the bigger companies do the work for you! Look at how they are targeting customers and copy that style or strategy. Trust me. They have spent the money to have teams of professionals figure out who to market towards and how to connect with them. Save your time and money and just follow their examples.

Now you really understand your customers' needs, how do you give them what they want?

This can be as easy as changing how you speak to customers. Start using buzz words in your business content and advertisements that your clientele will respond emotionally to.

You can reevaluate your services. Is there room to make more accommodations for your customers needs? Consider how you deliver your services and goods. Can you tweak something that will make your customer's life easier?

There are tons of whys you can convey to consumers that you understand and value them. Just remember that if you go out of your way to help others, they will take notice and are more likely to use your services over a competitor.

To Recap on why researching your future clients can help bring in more clients and make your life easier

This is all about creating a relationship with your clients. If you can show people that you value them and you understand their needs, they will come back time and again. They will tell their friends about you and encourage them to use your product. Lastly, it will save you time in the long run. Instead of trying to appease the masses that may never be interested in your product, you are concentrating on people that you know will want your product and you can help them solve their problems.

Let me help you hone in on your business persona. Contact me today at   https://p410media.com. Mention this article and receive a 15% discount!

Seven Ways to Build Your Marketing Skills Without Going Back to Study

By Pat Grosse

It's Sunday, 1 April, 7 am, and I'm about to listen to a webinar. There are another 99 people on the call, the first of two marketing-related webinars I will be listening to within the space of three hours. All this taking place on Easter Sunday. It's no April Fool's joke.

Today, more than ever, we are living in a world where access to learning is so readily available, it's on tap 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere on the planet. Much of this is for FREE. Even the busiest person can develop their marketing skills if they are hungry enough and know where to look.

Here are seven ways you can build contemporary marketing skills and knowledge without breaking into a sweat at the thought of using your precious free time to go back to study:

It's Sunday, 1 April, 7 am, and I'm about to listen to a webinar. There are another 99 people on the call, the first of two marketing-related webinars I will be listening to within the space of three hours. All this taking place on Easter Sunday. It's no April Fool's joke.

Today, more than ever, we are living in a world where access to learning is so readily available, it's on tap 24/7, 365 days a year, from anywhere on the planet. Much of this is for FREE. Even the busiest person can develop their marketing skills if they are hungry enough and know where to look.

Here are seven ways you can build contemporary marketing skills and knowledge without breaking into a sweat at the thought of using your precious free time to go back to study:

1 Webinars - webinars usually take up 60 to 90 minutes of your time without leaving your desk. They are designed as the first insight into more focused programs but are also a good way to filter out the skills you don't need without spending money, not just on educational resources, but also on time and travel to get to face-to-face venues. If you're going to spend money, then listening to webinars is an ideal way to try before you buy. Technology enables webinars to be presented morning, afternoon, evening, from anywhere in the world and as evergreen recordings. If you're too busy for one scheduled time, there's likely to be another one coming along real soon.

2 Join a local marketers club. If there's one nearby, join it. This is a great way to focus your attention on marketing and you will be mixing with, and learning from, like-minded people. If we are the sum of the people we hang around with, then joining a local marketing club can only enhance your skills, knowledge and passion.

3 Business networks - in the absence of a dedicated marketing group, there are more likely to be business networking groups. There may, or may not, be restrictions around membership of business groups, but if you can get into them, they are a great way to hone your networking skills. Many small business owners are not natural networkers. Joining a business network is an ideal way for you to strike up conversations with strangers. Uncomfortable for some at first, regular attendance positions you within your business community, and opens up the world of referrals, leading to new customers.

4 Online networks - since Facebook algorithms changed recently, business gurus have been encouraging people more than ever, to join online business groups as an alternative to paid advertising. Whilst spamming is not allowed in these online communities (there may be official opportunities to promote your services), these communities are ways to gain trust in you as the business owner knowledgeable in your field, and consequently, group members will recommend you when somebody has a problem that you can solve. You will find that combining online and business networking activities puts faces to the names in the groups. If you are looking for a specific skill to help you in your business, there will be plenty of people in these groups offering services, programs and workshops.

5 Face-to-face workshops - even with advancing technology, there is a lot of value in attending face-to-face workshops. Depending on what you are looking for, workshops vary from FREE to serious money. Face-to-face workshops are great opportunities to network and meet like-minded people. They are also assuring in that many attendees are just like you. Most effective though, is that by being in the same physical environment as the workshop facilitator/guru, if the workshop is good, you will continue your professional development relationship online. You will gravitate towards their options because the journey of trust has already begun.

6 Books, articles and blogs - the written media is as powerful today as it has ever been. For added benefit, much of this is also replicated in audio and video formats for the audio-visual person. Books are readily available, online as well as in physical bookshops. Investing in a Kindle or other book e-reader enables you to build your own personal business library that you can carry with you and read anywhere, anytime - great for those long plane and train journeys. Start your library with some of the most effective business books from the last 100 years. Read them and let their messages permeate your sub-conscious brain. It is amazing how much knowledge you soak up which can then be used to improve your business.

7 Invest in coaching and mentoring. We all consider our marketing needs to be unique to our businesses. You can absorb as much knowledge as the above six methods can convey but knowing isn't doing. A coach will help you overcome specific hurdles by showing you a better way, whilst a mentor will challenge your thinking and guide you to the next level.

Combine these learning strategies and your approach to marketing will change forever. As a business owner, even if you delegate the doing to another person, it is important to understand marketing principles and to stay ahead of the game. Better understanding and relevant knowledge lead to making informed choices and give you the competitive edge. Rather than spending hundreds of hours browsing the internet, attending workshops and listening to webinars, what if you could find this understanding and knowledge in one place?
This is why we I wrote "The Intuitive Marketer". I put in the hundreds of hours updating my marketing skills and knowledge and put my learning into the context of my experiences, to showcase how everyday marketing principles work in real life. The result is a book packed with so much information, that most people should walk sway something that they can incorporate into their business.

In The Intuitive Marketer - Timeless Marketing Principles to Create and Build Successful Businesses, I have outlined 20 intuitive marketing principles, to assist business owners in kick-starting their marketing strategy. The book is an essential resource for business owners with little knowledge of how marketing works, who are looking for some context to assist with making informed marketing decisions. The book is available for download from most online bookstores and available in hard copy from http://bit.ly/theintuitivemarketer.

The Perfect Store Concepts For Repeat Visits

By Ann Y

When they walk into the store, first, you want them to feel welcomed. Two, you want them to feel at ease - no pressure and to-the-point. Three, you want them to freely browse around and find something that they want from your store. Even if they leave without purchasing something from you, the feeling that you want them to leave with them is that they are more than welcomed to come back any time that they want when they are in the neck of the woods.

'Consumer behaviour' has come under the microscopic scrutiny of marketing experts since the beginning of time. Back when people did not have the means nor the scope to analyze and collect data from consumers, they asked around through word of mouth. In modern day, needless to say, things have changed and we have enough data now to classify each decision, each action and each influence based on consumer behaviour.

There are no one-size-fit-all solutions and all industries have to depend on a deep understanding of their target markets and demographics. Methods that hold sway in the brick and mortar environment may not work in an offline one, and vice versa. But vying for our target market's attention and clocking in reminders to them on a regular basis is a given.

Marketing and the First Impression

Attending exhibitions, participating in promotions and partnerships, placement of advertisements, pasting of posters, handing out of brochures, engaging in potential customers on online platforms and sending of newsletters are all different effective ways to reach out to your target market.

What everyone in the marketing and advertising industry can agree on is that most consumers purchase based on their emotions, instead of needs. Standing out at first glance makes the best and most lasting impression - whether it is on Instagram or in a newspaper advertisement. People make decisions when they are done weighing all their options, often not on impulse.

One example would be this: a woman could be yearning for that kitchen appliance for months. She held back. A few months later, she purchases the first thing she remembers in an advertisement, but only when she feels that she either NEEDS the appliance to make HER life better, or it has reached an URGENT level.

So, the question is: are you and will you be there for her when she's ready to buy?

Target Audience and Purchasing Power

The general consensus is that yes, everyone wants a nicer or newer car, house, kitchen or sofa. But not everyone can AFFORD to get it on the whim. Your target market, hence, depends highly on your product branding and placement.

An example would be a company attending an exhibition. If you're an airline or a hotel participating in a Travel Fair, similar to our Malaysian MATTA Fair, you're targeting the right people. The attendees of the fair attend the fair based on their purchasing power, have a budget for a break, and are ready to spend money (albeit, with attractive discounts) on a holiday. The fair already has their segmented target group of people.

In the online world, most social media networks allow you to target your audience, although not as precise as the example above. In the offline one, handing out brochures and samples in a mall frequented by elite and wealthy prospects (based on the type of retail outlets and brands there are in the mall) will help you sell more extravagant goods as compared to budget items.

Bottom line is, know where your audience are, be there and STAND OUT.

Give People A Good Reason To Come Back... Soon!

You don't need a marketing expert to tell you that you need to give people a reason to come back. Stand a day behind the cashier counter of a retail outlet and watch people come in, go out time and time again, the whole day, and realize that a large percentage of your customers have been to your store before. Most real customers are returning visitors.

This is particularly important if you do not have an online presence, where you rely exclusively on people who walk in through your front door. A reason to return could be something as simple as a coupon, a friendly smile, or a brochure for them to look at when they're waiting at the bank. Some shops hold successful open houses and exclusive events and it works!

Placement of Promotional Items For That Impulse Purchase

This is a no-brainer but it bears a reminder. If you have something on promotion, place it strategically at the counter near the cashier. As you're crunching the final numbers, your customers' eyes are roaming around the surface area of the countertop and this is the perfect chance to grab that 'hard to resist' promotional item and pop it quickly into their basket. In modern day term, this is FOMO in action. Google it.

This works especially well if you are clearing your inventory, have a new product sample to offer, or are promoting a new product. Customers, when they are at the final leg of their shopping, feel limited by time and inventory, hence, they are more likely to take the deal that you're suddenly offering at the very last minute. The adrenaline is surging and they feel the urgency to make a decision - and they're likely to make a quick 'cheap' purchase at the end of it. The data says it all, and that's why you commonly see retailers taking advantage of that limited time frame to squeeze something extra into their customers' baskets.

Call Out To Them With Enticing Design And Colours

It's been shown that a colourful, well-thought-out and easy-to-navigate store is much more inviting and enticing than white-walled ones with nothing calling out to them. Your store tells a story by itself, from the windowpane to the cashier at the end. If your location enjoys a reasonable number of footfall, encourage them to step in (without pressuring them) for a look-around with designs that call out to them.

Design a window display that tells a short story about what they can expect to find in your store. Tug at their heartstrings, bring them in with just a suitably-themed window display or a well-positioned poster.

And if they don't walk in the first time, chances are, they might the second time round.

Find more useful articles, ideas, and inspiring pictures to fuel your passion as a designer or help you come up with a chic design for the renovation of your store from our websites. Check out Formedge.com.my. for products and services and Decowall.com.my for inspiration and promotional items on shopfitting products, furniture, wall-mounted slatwall systems and counters on discount.