Anyone who wants to have any chance of running a successful business needs to realise just how incredibly important it is to be able to market effectively.
It would be nice to think that quality had the final say, and that you could stand head and shoulders above your competition, and make your fortune, by being as diligent as possible, and providing the best possible service. Realistically, though, it’s not always the case that the highest quality offering rises to the top.
Instead, the products or services that command the highest degree of the market share, are always going to be those that not only meet a certain standard of quality, but that are also marketed highly effectively, and rigorously.
There’s a lot that goes into an effective and compelling marketing campaign. You need to be able to establish a sense of rapport with your customer, and to gain the trust. And you need to be able to sell to their sense of self-interest, and desire to solve problems in their own life.
Ultimately, one of the most important factors in being able to market effectively, is to know your niche, inside and out. Here are a few reasons why.
Different audiences will have different needs that have to be addressed
It’s a truism in the world of marketing, that you don’t try to sell features, you try to sell benefits, and solutions to problems.
Your audience isn’t stupid. If you list off the features of a particular product, in a highly scientific and impersonal way, they’ll be able to intellectually identify some of the potential benefits of those features. But, if you actually want to make an emotional impact on him, and motivate them to make a purchase, you need to take a far more evocative approach, from the get go.
When someone is in the market for a particular good or service, they will always have some problem in mind that they want to address, through the purchase. Importantly, the specific needs that your audience will have, will vary dramatically, based on the niche you operate within.
If you run a fitness business, for example, your audience is going to be entirely concerned with questions such as becoming beach ready for the summer, or getting six pack abs to impress the ladies. They won’t be worrying about their pension – at least, not in relation to what it is you are offering.
You need to hit the nail on the head when trying to establish rapport with your audience. You need to identify and address the issues they may feel they are facing, clearly and concisely. And, unless you understand your niche very well, you won’t be able to do this.
What does the average person who shops within your industry want? What is it they are looking for? And how can you give them what they want, more comprehensively than your competition can?
2. Different fields will have different over-played techniques that need to be circumvented
One of the big problems with marketing, in general, is that society as a whole is absolutely saturated in marketing campaigns of various sorts – and so, the general public tends to be somewhat jaded to marketing campaigns that are done “by the numbers.”
In order to really sell effectively, you need to be original and creative enough to actually get people’s attention, and not just cause them to roll their eyes when they see “yet another” example of the same tired old campaign being rolled out.
A key point to consider here, is that different fields will have different over-played marketing techniques that need to be circumvented, in order to be sufficiently original and attention-grabbing.
A company such as elitelawyermanagement.com, for example, will focus entirely on helping law firms to market in innovative ways. But, what’s “innovative” in one industry, may be rote in another.
3.Having the right “style” is essential for gaining customer attention and trust
Different industries and niches have different accepted standards of behaviour, presentation, and different qualifiers of professionalism and trustworthiness.
If, for example, you are running a trendy tech company, targeting millennials, you probably wouldn’t make a great impression if you took a completely straight-laced approach to your marketing efforts, insisted that everyone in your company wore a suit with a tie to work every day, and had a regulation haircut policy.
By the same token, if you are running a financial firm, you would likely horrify many of your prospective clients if you turned up for work each day in a tracksuit and sandals, and filled your marketing pitches with a bunch of pop cultural references.
Understanding your niche is important for understanding the right “style” that should be employed to gain your customer’s attention and trust.
The world is changing rapidly. New technologies are changing the way live, new lifestyle choices demand new ways of living and more and more people are moving to the city and leaving the countryside. Plus, with climate change and better awareness of the effects of human activity, many more people are changing their lifestyles to become more environmentally friendly.
So how does this affect city development?
Foundations
The foundations of any city are vital for overall development. New York, for example, can support so many large skyscrapers because it is built on marble, though you’ll notice that there are no skyscrapers in the midtown or downtown areas as the foundations here aren’t as strong.
Water is one of the major issues for unstable foundations. However, systems can be put in place using technologies such as inflatable packers for grouting to form a strong drainage system. This may lead to more adventurous architecture, especially in cities with a high water table and increased risk of flooding, though whether architects are willing to take on that sort of challenge now is less sure.
Interconnectedness
One of the main reasons people move to the city is to be more interconnected. They want to get to work easily; they want to find cafes, bars and restaurants to eat at; they want to be entertained. All of this means that city planners must keep their residents in mind as the city grows.
On the most practical level, interconnectedness means that getting from one place to another needs to be made easier, safer and cheaper for residents. The future of roads is already promising exciting developments such as driverless cars and smart roads to make commuting better. For the city, already grown up around small alleys and awkward spaces, incorporating this technology has to be a priority.
Technology
When we talk about the future, we have to talk about technology and the development of our cities is no different. Technology already abounds in our cities and it is a natural assumption that it will continue to shape spaces too. The smart city is already here and the question is not when but how technology will shape everything from infrastructure to cafe culture.
Future-proofing is a big deal for city planners right now. We are more aware than ever before that technology is shaping society (just as society is shaping technology) and this has a big impact on the way our cities grow up. We are well aware of the issues with resource management and efficiency within our cities now so planning ahead should give an insight into future solutions. Even if those solutions are to problems we aren’t even close to facing yet.
Planning and imagining the future is always a challenge and we only have to look a generation or two back to see how wrong we can get it. That Star Trek’s crews relied on tapes is adorable in a world reliant on Cloud computing. But just remember, we have a talking computer now so that speculation wasn’t all wrong.
The entrepreneurial lifestyle is challenging, to say the least. While days are certainly rewarding, they’re not without their struggles. Life can quickly become a blur of tasks and tribulations, which is why, sooner or later, all entrepreneurs hire staff to help lessen the hardship. Unfortunately, this will only work if your team are productive. No matter what the company does, doing more with less will boost your bottom line. With that in mind, here are five ways to improve productivity.
Hire The Right People
A calm and happy working environment is usually a productive one too. Unfortunately, it only takes one bad apple to ruin the mood for everyone else. When you hire an individual that slacks off all the time, steal from the business, and gossips about their colleagues, you’ll find they do more harm than good. Thankfully, you can attract the right people to your business by offering a good salary and benefits package. You can also separate them from lousy hires with interviews.
Allow Flexible Work Hours
Different people feel their best at different times of the day. Although some of your team will be at their most productive during the traditional nine to five working hours, others would prefer an earlier or later start time. By allowing your team to choose the hours that they want, you can ensure that they’re always working their very hardest. You might want to consider allowing some of your team to work from home too. This would benefit those with young children a great deal.
Provide The Necessary Tools
Even the best employees in the world can’t do their jobs well when they don’t have the necessary tools to do so. Whether it be a computer, 96 well plate, vacuum cleaner, or pen, you must ensure that your staff have all that they need. You should also provide proper training, which you repeat regularly and frequently. No employee walks into a job knowing how to do it exactly right, after all. You can conduct this training yourself or have employees do it online.
Learn To Show Appreciation
No one likes to work for someone that seems completely ungrateful. In fact, it could make your staff hate their jobs, which, of course, would damage their productivity. Because of this, you should show your team just how much you appreciate them. There are many ways to go about this, from cash bonuses to small gifts. That being said, you don’t have to spend money to show that you’re grateful. Sometimes a simple “thank you” works just as well, if not better.
You have a responsibility to provide your team with an adequate space to work. Unfortunately, if the office is always untidy, then you’re not doing this right. Clutter can have a serious impact on your mental state, causing stress, which limits both creativity and productivity. Thankfully, there is a very simple remedy – Keeping the space tidy. Decluttering the office and hiring a cleaning service can ensure that the workspace remains in tip-top condition.
With these tips, you should have no trouble improving producing in your small business.
Running a company in the 21st century is all about staying on top of the IT game. You want to be using a network that’s safe from intrusions and constantly updating to stay that way, and you want to be working with something easy and simple to get along with.
So, to make sure your company has the right kind of IT capability to it for both now and the future, here’s just a couple of the first things to know about the digital system in your workplace.
You can’t be your own IT support network as well as the person who uses it the most, day in and day out. You want to be productive and efficient about your use of the technology in your office, and that means you can’t be spending time trying to fix any number of problems it can run into on a daily basis.
Instead, you’re going to want a professional on hand to wade in and save the day, should your computer ever freeze and crash, or if your network seemingly loses all semblance of a connection out of nowhere. You’re going to want peace of mind over the whims and wiles of the technology we rely on on a daily basis, especially when your income depends on it.
You probably don’t have the money or the space to keep an IT expert in house on a regular basis, and thus you’re going to need to rely on some kind of virtual assistant or external help desk to keep things running smoothly. Which means it’s a good thing IT companies offer Outsourced IT options for any business owner who’s in a similar position to yours.
You’re Going to Need to Keep Copies
Even when you’re using a digital system to keep track of the data your company churns out on a daily basis, the storage capacity and server longevity isn’t infallible. It’s made up of a code that was crafted by human hands; mistakes can be made!
Even more so, updates come out for these systems on a semi regular schedule, a.k.a., better, more experienced, and more skilled hands come along and make changes that completely invalidate the way a network works for you. One bit of changed code, or even just one lost bracket, and your data could be corrupted.
And that means you’re going to need to backup your files as often as possible, hopefully at least once a week. If you run an online company with online transactions, you’re going to want to do this more often, maybe even once a day. After all, the best way to keep customer details safe is to be sure you’re working with a system that keeps track of the card details, name, and addresses of anyone who buys from your website.
Your company has a lot to offer the market it serves, but only if you have the right hardware and infrastructure to work off of.
Have you ever been sitting down, doing whatever it is your hobby is and thought to yourself, ‘I wish this could make me some money?’. Well, you aren’t alone. There is a reason that freelancing and ‘side hustles’ are big business right now. When you find something that you genuinely love, it is easier to spend hours and hours on it. And they say if you love the work you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
But what are some of the hobbies, or skills outside of work that you can make money from?
Blogging
It might seem a bit strange, but blogs are prime real estate for public relations companies, SEO companies and other brands to advertise. A blog or more specifically, the writer is trusted by an audience, and because of that when they include information about products – their readers will trust their opinion and are more likely to purchase those products. You can charge high amounts when you have a higher readership – and of course, your social media platforms all to that too. You’ll need a domain name, and to build your blog – but with WordPress being so simple, it won’t take more than 5 minutes to get set up and start writing.
Match Betting
Some people love it, some people don’t really understand it. But if you pay attention to a lot of the information available about how to manage your match bets, and where to put your money – you are pretty much guaranteed to see an income from it. If you are already enjoying betting on some other things, like the SA Powerball, then the general process of betting won’t be alien to you. You basically bet on both outcomes of any wager. Because the bookie gives you a ‘bet match’ in most sign-ups, you won’t lose your cash. It’s considered very safe if general guidelines are followed.
Graphic Design
If you are reasonably artistic, the chances are that you have – on more than occasion, tried out some of the available computer software. Once you get the hang of it, you can start producing social media packages which consist of headers, display profile images and logos. Or you might be interested in creating much bigger things. These sell very well, and you can either set up (and design) your own website, or you can sell through places like Fiverr, Upwork, and Dots.
Stocks
This one is more of a long-term hobby. If you can work out the best robo-investing software for you to use, you can remain pretty hands off – if you want. You can start with pretty small amounts, and then when you are more comfortable up it. In general, you should consider how comfortable you are with ‘risk’ because, of course, you can lose your money. But, if you have a mind for numbers, and love to really delve into specific markets (eco, emerging, tech), then you can see a return on your hobby cash in a few years.
There are so many more, in fact here is a bonus list to think about:
Writing
Photography
Credit Card Rewards
Surveys
Crafts
Copy Editing
Baking
Making Jewellery
If you have a skill in it, you can pretty much sell anything. Make use of your time well, and the internet tools you have available, and you’ll be on to a winner in no time at all.
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