Brand to Hand - South Africans vote with their mobile phones
More than 5 million business names with their contact numbers have been sent out
by iFIND 34600 to consumers requesting information on businesses using keywords
and location.
South Africans are simply saying if "I want it, and want it now" or "I need it,
and need it now" I will use my mobile phone and 34600 to find it.
Research has shown that people use the 34600 mobile directory services for immediate
fulfillment or what we term instant gratification.
This simply means that when they receive their results via our 34600 SMS service
the success ratio is much higher than when consumers have to rely traditional directory
services. Thus the chances are much greater that they will contact your company
and actually do business with you (purchase a product or service). Most consumers
that use iFIND 34600 are in the "purchase" quadrant of the buying cycle. They want
"something" NOW!!!
Our online directory (www.34600.co.za) has also seen tremendous growth in its use
and we will shortly also launch enhancements to the online service to a captive
online community of
2 million South Africans . This means we will be placing your business in front
of more people more often on mobile and online than anyone else.
More Bang for your buck
Once listed on the mobile directory you are automatically added to the online directory
at no additional cost. So from as little as R171 pm VAT incl. you can now position
yourself and your brand in front of more than 23 million cellphone and 2 million
online users.
ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SMS THE WORD "REGISTER" TO 34600 OR SEND AN EMAIL TO info@34600.co.za
AND ONE OF OUR CONSULTANTS WILL CONTACT YOU AND TAKE YOUR BUSINESS LIVE IN NO TIME
Features & Benefits of listing with us
More to come
We are staying at the forefront of new technological developments and global and
local consumer trends to ensure that we offer you, our advertisers, with the best
value for money and value added benefits. So make sure you watch this space as we
will inform you of all the exciting new developments as they happen.
Until next time, and I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND
34600.
Kind Regards,
Tertius Bester
Eight Marketing Strategies Every Business Should Use
Companies spend billions of rands each year to market their business. Marketing
is the entire process of getting a product or service into the hands of buyers and
it includes research, development, planning, copywriting, packaging, pricing, advertising,
publicity, sales and delivery.
But if your company is small - like most businesses in South Africa - you probably
don't have a large marketing budget. But you can stretch those available rands you
have for marketing by applying these EIGHT smart marketing strategies:
1. Leverage the Power of Targeting and Branding
Determine who's most likely to buy your product or service, and then tailor your
marketing message accordingly. Always send the right message to the right audience.
Also, create a consistent brand or image for your company, product or service. Branding
involves everything related to your company from your logo and e-mail branding down
to your style of customer service. And it can help you make sales quicker and easier,
so you're able to spend less on marketing.
2. Choose the Right Tools For The Job
This amounts to doing it right the first time, every time. You can't afford to waste
energy and precious rands by using marketing items for the wrong purpose. For example,
if you want to reach a specific market segment, personalized e-mail or SMS campaigns
to targeted communities could provide significant benefits, whilst a print ad in
a general-interest newspaper or other publication would be a waste of money.
3. Create Versatile Materials
Create marketing materials you can use for more than one purpose. Instead of a large
brochure, consider printing a small tri-fold piece that can be mailed inside an
envelope, handed out and placed in a display rack. Similarly, a flier can be slipped
inside a presentation folder or distributed in mass quantities.
4. Be Conservative
Don't spend any more than is necessary to get the job done. When printing, choose
fewer colours and pages to cut your cost in half. Opt for graphics software, branding
tools and royalty free stock photography (images you can use on website, marketing
material and newsletters - hardcopy and e-mail) and other tools that allow you to
avoid hiring expensive professionals. Your goal should always be to produce professional
materials, not necessarily the most expensive ones.
5. Capitalize on "Free" Advertising
Send a press release to print, radio and broadcast media. It won't cost you anything
to send in submissions. What you can gain is free publicity in the form of a full
article or at least a small brief. Unbiased publicity from a reporter carries a
lot of weight and can help you "advertise" your business better than any paid advertising
can.
6. Form Strategic Alliances
Combine your marketing efforts and rands with those of complementary businesses.
Swap customer referrals and split the cost of a postcard mailing or print ad with
trusted business partners. You can also share exhibit space at fairs, trade shows
or co-sponsor special events.
7. Improve and Maximize Customer Relations
Always meet and exceed your customers' expectations... so that you don't lose them.
Some estimates say it costs seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain
an existing one. You can also save money and time by generating repeat business
from your customers. Contact them with a special offer or piece of useful information
using e-mail and mobile (SMS campaigns); they'll probably be happy to hear from
you. Ultimately, you'll be doing them and yourself a favour.
8. LIST AND ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS WHERE YOU GET THE BEST EXPOSURE AND RETURN
ON YOUR MARKETING INVESTMENT.
Make sure your every marketing cent counts. Many clients advertise in newspapers,
local directories on even on desk pads and calendars, often spending thousands of
marketing rands on things that look and sound great when being shown or sold to
them, but which ultimately provide a poor return on investment.
At iFIND we offer real value, and when you list with us you effectively form a strategic
alliance with us and other complimentary clients all over South Africa by combining
our marketing rands and splitting the cost of advertising so that you get maximum
exposure to the largest audience possible. Today iFIND provides the most comprehensive
and inclusive demographical and geographical exposure available to any small or
medium size business in South Africa and by listing with us you can now position
your business and brand in front of more than 23 million cell phone and 2 million
online users. iFIND is consistently delivering more than 1 million business search
results per month just on mobile to South African clients which converts to tens
of thousands of new business leads and deals. Listed below is a summary of the exposure
we have secured for our strategic partner/clients.
Media Summary iFind 2005/6
Television - Advertisements on SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, MNET, DSTV
and ETV
Radio - Advertisements, promotions & competitions on Highveld 94.7,
SAfm, 5FM, Radio Metro, Radio Lotus, Radio Good Hope, RSG, Jacaranda 94.2 and Classic
FM.
Billboards - Super sites in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and
Cape Town
Magazines and Newspapers - Huisgenoot, You, Garden & Home, ZOK,
Die Beeld, and industry specific publications such as Gauteng Business, TechSmart,
FAnews, Floors in Africa, Walls & Roofs in Africa & The Great Flooring Guide.
Mobile and Websites - www.ifind.co.za, www.sabcmobile.co.za, www.fanews.co.za,
www.insurancegateway.co.za and www.postnet.co.za and www.revotext.co.za or http://revotxt.co.za
directly from your cell phone.
Retail Presence - 215 PostNet Stores county-wide.
To make sure you get the most "bang for your buck" make the smart move and become
our strategic partner today and help us help you grow and prosper.
ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SMS THE WORD "REGISTER" TO 34600 OR SEND AN EMAIL TO info@34600.co.za
AND ONE OF OUR CONSULTANTS WILL CONTACT YOU AND TAKE YOUR BUSINESS LIVE IN NO TIME
Over the past 12 months we have also researched the market for the most powerful,
easy-to-use and cost-effective marketing, advertising, recruitment and client relationship
management tools available and will be making them available to our strategic partners/clients
over the next couple of months either free or at a substantially reduced cost to
that available in the open market. Should you have any interim needs or requirements
as far as websites, e-mail branding, e-newsletters, bulk and personalized e-mails
or SMS or anything else is concerned you can e-mail me on my address below and we
will assist you as best we can.
Until next time, and I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND
34600.
Kind Regards,
Tertius Bester
Good Marketing gets done daily!
If you're one of our country's thousands of entrepreneurs who have struggled to
turn a good idea for a product or service into a successful business, you're probably
nodding your head, or chuckling in agreement.
Maybe you're just starting out on this process of what seems to be an unassailable
mountain of a task. In amongst the myriad of tasks you need to do, from sales, to
operations, to following up suppliers and creditors, marketing is sometimes left
a bit neglected until there is some sort of need or crisis, or a stimulus like the
design guy who helped you create your logo deciding its time he phoned you to convince
you that you need new business cards.
For those of you who have "been there, done that and got the t-shirt", it may be
a good reminder that like strategy, marketing often doesn't get the time it needs
to really make your business a success. Make the commitment to yourself to do at
least one marketing activity a day.
Focus on Sales Write to a prospective client, or personally make
some sales calls. Find out from your sales team which deals are just waiting for
the approval of the CEO, who doesn't have the time to meet with, or talk to them.
Take the time out and write the CEO an email, or phone them personally.
Sometimes all it takes to close that deal is a bit of personal attention from top
management. You'll be surprised at what it will do for the motivation levels of
your sales guys as well.
Make time for networking Attend seminars and business functions
whenever you can. Networking is a hugely powerful tool. But be aware that it's not
an open invitation to take over the conversation and go on and on about your product
or service.
Sometimes it's useful to just stand back and let the other guy talk, especially
if he is, or knows your competitors. You can't create a unique selling proposition
unless you know what your competitors offer. You need to know what you're up against
so that you can identify the unique benefits of your product or service.
Live your business! Use every opportunity to tell everyone about
your product or service. Make sure that everyone around you knows what you do and
why people should be using your business.
Don't underestimate your circle of influence, particularly your close family and
friends - they should all know your business inside and out, and make sure that
they all know your business' contact details are available on iFIND 34600. It's
like having a virtual sales force - unseen and unheard of until it matters.
Organise and Focus! Make sure that you work when you should be
working, and market when you should be marketing.
Most entrepreneurs need to work both in their business as well as on their business.
Don't get so involved with working in the business that you forget or neglect to
work on the business.
Organise your workspace, including your PC desktop so that you can find things quickly.
Pay attention to the little things so that they don't trip you up when you need
to focus on the big things.
There's nothing worse than not being able to find the presentation you were supposed
to start delivering 10 minutes ago because the directory structure of your My Documents
is disorganised and contains thousands of subdirectories and five year old files.
The longest journey starts with the first step! If you, like many
of us, are struggling to find enough time to get everything done, and keep balance
in your life, pick one of these tips and concentrate on it for the next month.
Make it a concerted effort - if you're into gadgets, put it on all of them, and
if you prefer Post It's, use them everywhere to remind you. You'll be surprised
about how the change has helped you better manage your time and business, and positively
enhanced your relationships with your staff and customers.
Remember, "Do it daily"!
Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND 34600.
Kind Regards,
Tertius Bester
If you're in business, offering a product or service that you believe satisfies
a need, you better make sure you can convert the interest shown by your potential
customers, into cash in the bank.
The marketing process begins with finding out who your potential customers are and
what they want, and then involves everything you need to do in a way that keeps
them coming back for more. In other words, marketing is everything about your company
seen from your customer's perspective.
So, in order to successfully translate the interest shown by a customer in the products
you have, all the company's policies and activities should be geared towards satisfying
customer needs, whilst simultaneously making a profit.
It's all too easy to fall into the trap of maximising sales volume or turnover instead
of focussing on maximising profits. If your commission structure for your sales
staff is only based on turnover and doesn't include profitability, you may be heading
for disaster.
People buy things for their own reasons, not yours!
Do you make an effort to understand what your prospective customers actually need,
before you try to sell to them? This is one of the most basic of the fundamentals
of sales. We always say "The three most important things for successful sales are
attitude, attitude and attitude".
With the right attitude you can easily focus on understanding the customer's needs.
You need to ask the right questions at the right time.
Learn to listen!
Get to know the power of silence. Don't get so caught up in your "sales pitch" that
you don't give the customers a chance to tell you what they need. Learn to be comfortable
with the silence that often naturally occurs while talking to your customers.
Use it as a way to get more information about what they need. Once you think you
know what they need, summarise what you've heard before you start making a proposal.
Value your leads!
The purpose of advertising is to generate leads while at the same time creating
or maintaining awareness about your company. Leads cost you money. Everyone knows
that the cost of acquisition and return per unit of effort with cold calling is
much higher than with qualified leads.
Your approach and possibly even pitch when dealing with leads will most probably
be different when dealing with leads. So what do you do with your leads once you
get hold of them?
Are you getting it right?
Allow me to share a personal experience. A friend of mine urgently required a licensed
copy of a popular accounting package. He is the accountant for a number of smaller
firms, where he works on site.
However, he has also recently set up an office own, and need his own copy of this
particular software. I offered to assist, and used iFIND to get details of possible
suppliers. I have also seen advertisements outside an accounting firm near my home.
I contacted a few firms, requesting a quote by email and leaving my mobile number
for follow up. I also got hold of the national distributor of package, who "couldn't"
give me an indication of pricing, but promptly sent me a mail with the details of
three of their authorised resellers, with the promise that I would be contacted
by one of them shortly.
In the meantime I contacted four other possible suppliers, including physically
going in to two of the authorised resellers.
Well, well, well.
I was very well received in the shops and over the phone. Unfortunately no-one could
give me a price, but they all took my details and promised to get back to me. I
got my first and only call a day later, very helpful, found out what I wanted, took
down my details (again) and promised to send a quote.
The next day they phoned again to get my details, apparently the person I spoke
to had misplaced my email address. Still another day later, I got the quote, generated
by the very software I was looking to purchase.
The result!
My friends predicament did not allow him the luxury of spending a week getting quotes,
so in the meantime he downloaded an open source accounting package from the Internet,
and by the time I sent him the quote, he was already up and running, with his budget
still largely intact.
So, what do you do to take care of your leads?
Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND 34600.
Kind Regards,
One thing that I've seen over and over, both with iFIND and with other businesses
I've been involved with in various capacities, is that when customers aren't happy,
they don't care about your problems - they just want you to sort out their problem!
They firmly believe that regardless of what position you hold in the company, the
reason they are talking to you is because you can sort out their problem. Alternatively,
they expect you to be able to put them through to someone who can help them.
I am reminded of a radio ad I heard recently where the highly frustrated guy says
to the call centre agent "put me through to anyone as long as I can get connected
to the Internet TODAY!!!". Obviously he's been having a hard time. By the way, if
you've been struggling to get broadband Internet, click here.
Annoying customers or annoying customers?
I don't believe that anyone is in business to annoy customers, although I'm sure
all over the world people at some stage have wondered about some government and
parastatal institutions.
I think it was Peter Drucker who said "A business exists to create customers", if
it doesn't have customers, it's not satisfying a need, and consequently it's not
a business. So if a business has been around for a while, and its got customers,
it must be doing something right, right?
Happy customers - a blessing indeed!
Don't we all wish that our customers who had a good experience would just go ahead
and tell the world about it (and us)? It's true that the most powerful form of advertising
is word of mouth.
By providing a good quality product and service, and supporting them with solid
customer relations, you will undoubtedly create a sustainable business. There is
no doubt that if you are able to consistently offer a superior value proposition
to your customers, more of them will keep coming back for more.
We see it at iFIND.The more we get it right, the more people use iFIND to find things
they need, the more we get calls where so and so "told me it was working for them,
so I need to sign up and get it working for me", the less we have to try to convince
potential advertisers of the value.
Watch this space, within the next few weeks we will be adding even more value to
our advertisers, not only on mobile (SMS, USSD and WAP), but also online! We're
excited, hope you are too.but back to the customers who have a problem.
Handling customer complaints.
Remember that in business, bad news travels faster than good, so difficult customers
need handling with care and respectful honesty. But not all customers are necessarily
good for your business. Be very wary of those who frequently complain about your
prices, or are rude to your staff.
Generally, these are the people who do not make a meaningful contribution to your
business, offering low margins with their purchases while taking up a significant
amount of your time and energy in dealing with them. You will most probably find
that the pareto rule applies, with them amounting to no more than 20% of your customers,
with the other 80% quite happy with your product, service, price and performance.
At the same time, if you are able to analyse the buying behaviour of your customers,
you would probably find that 20% of your customers generate 80% of your profits
(not necessarily turnover). Identify them, and make sure you treat them well!
Which customers are worth saving?
Firstly, we should recognise that for every person who complains, there are probably
9 other who don't and just take their business elsewhere. So a customer complaint
is inherently valuable, particularly if you are able to analyse it and fix it.
Although he may be angry at the time, he has made the effort to talk to you and
not just go to your competitors. These are customers generally worth saving!
OK. but how?
Firstly, this is the time to put away your ego and the wealth of "knowledge" you
have about your business and the industry you operate in. Don't waste your customer's
time by talking about what you know and how clever you are.
He doesn't care about your PhD or MBA, or any of the certificates on your wall from
the dozens of associations you belong to - this is the time to listen! You will
need to sift through the emotions to get to isolate the problem. You will need to
ask questions to help you understand and define the customer's position.
The most important thing however is to listen carefully. If necessary, ask more
questions and make sure you understand your customer's point of view. Always remember,
you have two ears and one mouth, so speak once and listen twice!! This is a lesson
I have personally failed a number of times, but I'm learning.
Can I fix it?
Short answer - No, it's too late. However, there's nothing wrong with making a counter
offer to make up for the customer's inconvenience.
If you can't do one thing because it would be in breach of a policy, make a plan
with something else. After all, the objective is to retain them as a customer. This
is where your network of customers, suppliers, partners and associates come in.
Introduce them to one another, share experiences with each other.
If you can't help a customer, maybe one of your customers or suppliers can. Perhaps
you can get something your unhappy customer needs from one of your suppliers at
a better rate - do it for the sake of saving YOUR customer. Chances are he won't
forget it.
.and remember, customers don't care about your problems!
Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND 34600.
Kind Regards,
Tertius Bester
It's all in the detail.
This past week I have been busy compiling the latest usage report for iFIND, getting
the guys to pull data from different sources, comparing one set of data with another,
looking for variations between the categories and searches, attempting to figure
out the story behind the story, trying out various graph types in order to present
the results in the easiest and most understandable way, and at the end of the day,
after a formidable task, getting a result that is a pleasure indeed!
We all know that iFIND works.
We all know that iFIND works, hundreds of thousands of people are using it every
month to find the products and services they need to make their lives easier. But
do we really know how well, until we look at the detail?
Sure we have a few key indicators, but that doesn't necessarily give us a true reflection
of what's happening. In order to really understand what's happening, we need to
do a thorough analysis of the data. We need to identify indicators for the various
processes within our companies that we can not only monitor, but regularly analyse
to make sure that we are still on track.
What about your business, you know its working but.
It doesn't matter what business you're in. In order to know how well it's going
(or not), and what areas need improvement, you will have to identify the key indicators
for the various processes. From the customer needs, through product or service realisation,
to delivery and post delivery processes including payment and collection - all need
to be monitored.
Once you have those in place, and you are sure they are giving you the correct picture,
you need to refine your analytical tools so that you can get the same information
faster and more accurately. Keeping your finger on the pulse.
So what does the detail at iFIND show?
Well, with consistent sms user loyalty of over 60%, a failed search ratio of less
than 0.1%, and international users having picked up on iFIND without us specifically
targeting the overseas market. something must be going right!
The mere fact that we are able to do an analysis between the last 100 000 search
results and the previous million puts us in a unique position.
Does that mean we are satisfied? Absolutely not!
We are in the last throws of what has been an incredibly exciting few months, doing
research into industry best practices, interviewing advertisers and users to find
out what their wish lists are for what they would like iFIND to do, and then sitting
down and prioritising it all into a coherent plan of action.
If you would like to receive a Usage Report, click here to update your details,
and we will make sure we send it to you. Please note that you need to update your
details before close of business on Friday 8 September for this report.
Watch this space!
Within the next two weeks, we will be making significant improvements to what you
can get from iFIND 34600! Our offering will be expanded to further add value to
our advertisers, and additional services will fill the needs of our users.
So, are you looking at the detail in your company?
Until next time, I hope you enjoy all the benefits of being listed on iFIND 34600.
Kind Regards,
Tertius Bester
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