A few minutes a day is all it will take.  Yet most of us will use the excuse that we just don’t have any more time to cram into our daily schedules or we have other pressing issues that need our “immediate” attention.  The problem is that we have made every issue a pressing issue and of the utmost important that as a result, we spend too much time working in our business instead of on our business. The downside to the instant flow of information in the business world we now live and work in have giving us the perception that the busier we are the more effective and successful our business will become.

When is the last time you silenced your phone, closed your email, sat with a pen and paper (or Word doc if you so choose) and really thought about your business.  What is going well and what needs improvement?  Where do you want your business to be in the next 3-5 years?   It can be a daunting task to say the least if you are trying to cram all of your thinking and planning into one brainstorming session.  Instead, why not try the following exercise: Take 10 uninterrupted minutes (no email, phone) every day to focus on your present and future business by doing one or more of the following exercises:

1.  Analyze your web site to see if there are any areas that can be altered to be more attractive to both your potential customers and search engines.
2.  Focus on your social media presence by sending out one quality Tweet, Facebook post or YouTube video each and every day. The goal is to use the social media platform to expand your brand.
3.  Research your competitors to find out how they are attracting and keeping their customers. What is their go to market strategy?
4.  Spend the time reading an industry specific article or book to gain further insight on your industry.  Even if you are not the industry leader, the goal is to be a resource for your customers to turn to.
5.  Focus on personal development by reading an article or book on leadership, sales or marketing.

The reality is there will always be more work that needs to be done, issues that come up and the pressure to squeeze more activities into the work day. We often fool ourselves by letting every issue, task, and deadline blow up and become a “hair on fire” crisis. We need to always remember, our goal each and every day is to work on our business and not just in our business. 

The placement of your branding is just as important as the design. Take a look at the example below to see that the old adage rings true even with branding, "location, location, location."

The next generation for the ever growing ecommerce business for many retailers is Mobile Business.  This is a dynamic segment as it allows companies to expand their brand and build customer loyalty by allowing their consumers to take them wherever they go. There is no better time for companies to launch a Mobile Business segment as the numbers of consumer Smart Phones are rapidly increasing.  In fact, we are at a place in the US where the number of cell phones is outnumbering the US population.  Just like when companies starting doing business online, there of course will be the naysayers who can’t believe consumers would buy certain products from their Smartphone, iPod, iPad or other device.  If there is ever a company that is use to these naysayers it would most likely be an online Jewelry company. Some old school consumers may have a hard time believing a person could buy a piece of Jewelry off the internet while not have the privilege of touching or holding it in an actual Jewelry store.  One such company has not only helped disintegrate those fears but has taking buying Jewelry to the next level through their Mobile Applications.  Click on the link below to find out more:

http://www.bluenile.com/mobile_applications.jsp

For those of you who wondered whether you clicked on the right web site or if I have lost my mind; no, this is not a post on cooking.  Rather, this is part of a marketing theory that author Francis Cole Jones refers to as “The Duncan Hines Cake Mike Marketing Theory.”  You see when Duncan Hines was first putting their café mix together, the decision was made by their marketing department to have the egg put in at home by the customer, rather than putting a powdered egg in the box.  At first glance, you might think this decision had more to do with how the cake might taste or for convenience sake but if you take a closer look, you will see the true reason they made this decision.  Duncan Hines realized that by having the customer put the egg in at home, their customers are taking ownership of making a cake by simply being able to say they baked the cake.  This lead their customers to truly connect to their cake mix instead of simply saying they bought the mix. Having your customers take ownership of your product or service makes them feel better about your idea or solution.  

You can bet that if your product or service makes your customers feel better, they will buy from you rather than your competition more often.  Having customer connect to your brand is an important marketing strategy but having your customers feel better about your products is the true icing on the cake. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist the cake reference)  The next time you are marketing a new product or working on how you can better position your products or services in the market ask yourself this, “what’s their egg?”

More consumers today are finding it easier and easier to shop online, thus bypassing the traditional brick-and-mortar stores.  Ecommerce is a great revenue stream for companies and gives companies the ability to enter and play in the social media arena as well. At the same time ecommerce can create a different set of challenges to companies as well. The task of comparison shopping is now much easier for your customers who no longer have to drive all over town to compare your price against your competitor’s price.  Price has been and will continue to be at the top or at least near the top of buying motives for online shoppers. However, companies cannot be fooled into thinking that price is the only concern for the consumer.  Consumers today have three main concerns outside of price when buying online:
1.       Shipping Cost
2.       Delivery Time
3.       Return Policy

How you handle these three buyer concerns can and most likely will be the difference as to whether customers purchase from your site or your competitors.  Now let’s dive a little deeper into these three concerns.

Shipping Cost- Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company did a study on how shipping costs affect consumer buying decisions.  They found that 61% of the people they surveyed would buy online more often from retailers that offered Free Shipping.  More and more companies are capitalizing on this and either creating or expanding their Free Shipping program.  Consumers are smart enough to understand that nothing is necessarily free and when companies offer Free Shipping, they may already be factoring it into the price of the product.  Additionally, companies that have successful Free Shipping programs often utilize lower-cost shipping options available to ensure they are using the most economical option available.  Transportation and Supply Chain companies can often provide some assistance with benchmarking what other companies are doing. 
Are you utilizing Free Shipping to drive top line revenue?
How often do you review your shipping program?

Delivery Time- A second question consumers buying online often have is how soon will my shipment arrive? There is often great anticipation for the order to arrive and having an accurate delivery window is a great way to satisfy your customers and ensure they become repeat customers. Studies show that consumers do prefer faster shipping but at the point that shipping cost more, their priorities may change. Amazon Prime is a great success story in terms of offering a transit speed upgrade program. It is a shipping program that Amazon.com launched that gives their customer’s unlimited fast shipping for an annual fee. Amazon has noticed that the growth as a result of this program was not in attracting more consumers to the site but getting them to come more often to purchase. Their Sr. VP and CFO Thomas Szkutak said“We're seeing customers do a lot more cross shopping than they have previously.”
Do you provide your customers with an accurate expected delivery window? How often do you review this?
Do you give your customers options to upgrade to a faster delivery?

Return Policy- A no-hassle returns process is critical for both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In addition there is a strong relationship between return policies and customer purchasing behavior.  When consumers first started shopping online, returns was a very big concern.  Many people did not feel comfortable buying someone without first having touched it.  Although companies have come a long way since then, companies often struggle to provide just the right return policy that is not to stringent to prevent customers from buying from them while at the same time not motivating their customers to return their products.  A fairly recent survey found that 69% of consumers would not likely shop again with an online retailer if the returns process was inconvenient.  Returns can also be a big headache for a company as well as there is money tied up not only in the inventory but in the labor to handle the returns as well.  The more automated and easier you make the return process the more satisfaction your customers will enjoy and will get you a better chance to turn them into a repeat customer.
How convenient is your Return Policy?
How often do you review your Return Policy?

One of the first and most important steps in understanding both your competitor’s and your own products is, understanding the key differentiators.  In other words, what influences a customer to buy your products or services rather than your competitor’s?  You can bet that if your employees don’t know, your customers probably don’t know either. Companies tend to spend a lot of time educating and training their employees on product knowledge but do they incorporate this critical piece of information into their training? This is a great opportunity for companies to really stand out when it comes to educating both their employees and customers. Also, a key to having a successful marketing campaign is to position your product or solution correctly. You can’t know where to position your products if you don’t first know how they differentiate in the marketplace.

In addition, consumers are drawn to brands that are different.  Differentiation comes in a variety of forms which can include the following:

1.       How your company(brand) or products connects with your customer base
                    a. This can be done on both an emotional or logical basis

2.       Your customer service or lack thereof compared to the competition’s    
                    a.  Is your call center outsourced or handled in-house?

3.       Your product offering compared to the competition’s
                    a.  For example, the # of sku’s a company offers may offer on their web site
                    b.  How many types of options are available (color, size, etc)

4.       Ease of use- How easy do you make it for your consumers to do business with you?

5.       Do your customers understand how your products or services will impact them?
                    a. Save them money, time or elevate stress, etc.

Many companies state or at least it’s implied they want their customer’s feedback, but you have to wonder how serious they really are. Starbucks left no doubt where they stood on the subject in March of 2008. You see they were facing a true crossroads and there was strong doubt by their shareholders, customers and the general public as to whether their success had perked (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Howard Schultz had just return to the CEO post after a 7 year hiatus and was ready to leave no stone unturned in his desire to bring the passion, culture and love for the Starbucks brand back to where it once stood. One of his immediate goals and initiatives was to strengthen the Starbucks Brand. To do this he launched a website (mystarbucksidea.com) to give their customers a venue to offer suggestions of how to make the company better.  What kind of impact did this have with their customers you ask?  7,000 ideas were posted to this site within 24 hours by their customers and they received a total of 41,000 ideas the first two months!  Not only did Starbucks receive some great new ideas that were eventually implemented to help turn the company around but more importantly, this simple act showed their customers how much they valued their input. This is turned made an already strong brand, even stronger.

How easy do you make it for your customers to provide feedback?
What do you do with the feedback you receive?
How connected are your customers to your brand?

Check out this great video that shows how one company is innovating its products across multiple industries.  A great example of tying your products/services  to current AND future solutions.