Age Statistics and Breakdown on Social Media Sites (Infographic)

Strategy Plan One

March 17, 2012 

Social Media Statistics

Different social media sites are used by different age groups for differing purposes.  Whether you use social media sites for business or other social means, you may find after reviewing stats and infographics such as this, you may want to alter or focus attention on sites that cater to certain age groups.

Courtesy of Pingdom.com and data from Google Ad Planner, here is an interesting age distribution breakdown of users on different social media sites.

Social Media Statistics – Infographic

 

From the above graphic, you can see that younger users dominate sites such as Bebo and MySpace and Xanga.  The more mature age groups, possible more engaged in using social media for career or business purposes, are the majority users on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, LinkedIn, and Classmates.

Targeting and the messaging around your products and services, or for other social means, is critically important.  Knowing statistics around age demographics on social media sites will help shape your marketing strategy and assist you to get the right message to the right target market.

 

Strategy Plan One

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© 2012 Strategy Plan One

 

 

Reach Success – Obtain Feedback for Continuous Improvement

Strategy Plan One

February 24, 2012 

Continuous Improvement through Feedback

If you want to enjoy success year after year as an entrepreneur you need to pay attention to your customers and your operations.  Feedback mechanisms are the best way to gauge objective feedback from clients and from your staff.

Feedback from surveying will shape how you can improve operations to build and retain customers and revenue.  Continuous improvement is a must in this competitive world.

Feedback Mechanisms

Whether customers are satisfied or not with your service or product, ensure you have feedback mechanisms such as surveying as part of your service operation.  You need to analyze a cross-section of feedback from all customers.  Even the happy customers will make note of things that can make the experience, product or service better.  Remember that you should not think your business is at 100% optimization in your product or service delivery.  Don`t fall into the trap of thinking everything is perfect and you never have to change.  Business environments and industries constantly change, and with that, you need to stay competitive with continuous improvements.  Take that valuable information from your customers and revise your operations, customer experience, product or service accordingly.  Ensure that you provide a message around your survey process that they are helping shape better products and services.

Continuous Improvement

Encourage a continuous improvement environment in your business, and empower your staff to take the lead and charge of recommended improvements.  As a leader, engage with your staff and units and survey them for their valued feedback.  Employee buy-in can occur if you make them a part of the valued process, and allow them to take ownership of the piece of action.  It helps as a leader to recognize unit and project leaders for their efforts.  If the improvement recommendations result in significant operational or profitability improvements, compensation incentives may be appropriate.  A whole organization that is engaged in a continuous improvement process will definitely build a continuous competitive firm.

Ensure you pay ultimate attention to your customer base and to your internal members of your business for feedback to make your business better and more competitive.

 

Strategy Plan One

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Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

 

 

Trade Show Event – Great Exposure for an Entrepreneur

Strategy Plan One

February 22, 2012 

You have almost completed your business plan, but you are still developing the marketing activities component.  One great avenue to include in your planning and to get exposure to your products and services is at a trade show event.

 

 

Trade Show Events

 

Trade show events give you the ability to showcase products and services to masses of potential customers, with colourful, interactive displays manned by representatives promoting the business.  Since the marketing product industry is so competitive, banner and pop-up displays are cost-effective and can be user-friendly in the set-up and take-down.  If designed right, your display can last for years and be used over and over again at trade show events.

 

If you have chosen the right trade show and right target participants, you may be able to convert a high rate of participants at a trade show event into buying customers.  You must consider that participants are there for a reason, and the fact that most pay to attend is a great sign that they are interested in the commercial aspects of the event.  Ensure you have the ability to track leads and to follow up on those leads.

 

Key factors you should be aware of when considering trade show events:

 

– Ensure you target the appropriate venues and trade shows that will result in the highest volume of interested participants

– Be prepared – design the layout of your trade show space and pick the appropriate spot in the trade show event

– Design your trade show booth and display, interactive with models, samples, videos, and take home products

– Make sure you staff you booth appropriately and that at least 1 person is there at all times; an unmanned booth is a waste of money at an expensive trade show, and opportunities for new customers will be lost

– Interact with customers stopping by the booth but also with the pedestrians who are walking the aisles by invite them in with offers

– Make sure you have freebies and give-aways with branded logos and contact information for the potential customers; there needs to be a way for potential customers to contact you

– Track revenue and expenditures from trade show activities, and analyze the return on investment

 

Your marketing budget for a trade show event must include:

 

– Cost of trade show attendance and appropriate booth space

– Any advertising that will promote your attendance at the event

– Banners and printed materials

– Give-aways, samples and contest expenditures

– Human resource staffing costs

– Costs of transportation

– Any additional insurance costs

– The post event costs associated with customer and lead follow up

 

Consider trade show events as one of those key marketing, outreach activities for your business.  With added attention to your trade show participation, your booth will be the showcase of the trade show event, and will result in additional customers and revenue generation you deserve.

 

Strategy Plan One

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Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Super Bowl Infographic – Big Business and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

Strategy Plan One

February 5, 2012 

NRF Infographic 2012 Super Bowl

You may have noticed the traffic around the internet on how much business is generated around Super Bowl, one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.

Not only does the event itself make massive amounts of money from TV and advertising, but bars, pubs, restaurants and retail outlets see their sales soar, in some cases up 200%.

The National Retail Federation (www.nrf.com) is estimating that around the US, Super Bowl Sunday will generate  $11 Billion spent in food services and retail.  NRF further estimates a whopping $1.02 Billion will be spent on snacks alone .  Host city Indianapolis, will benefit by around $150 Million is spending directly in their community.

If you are an entrepreneur, hopefully you will take notes on opportunities around sporting events such as this one.

Businesses and industries are built around these events.  Be careful to draw the line between ancillary businesses and ones that use the Super Bowl brand; the latter requires permission and agreements on use of trademarks.

Enjoy the stats and data in this infographic, courtesy of NRF.com

Strategy Plan One

© 2012 Strategy Plan One

Business information, resources and tips for the entrepreneur

Dealing with Difficult Customers

Strategy Plan One

February 3, 2012 

As entrepreneurs and small business owners, we all face the occasional customer that is not happy about a product, service, staff or the business itself.  Here are some helpful tips to alleviate pressures and turn a consumer from angst to repeat customer.

Take the time to listen to the full concerns of the customer    

Spend time with the customer to try and resolve.  You are in the game of building customers and your business survival depends on the customer, so invest time to resolve.  When a complaint comes forward, the customer wants to be heard.  Don’t be confrontational, but listen and be patient and you will notice a natural decline in the tone and behaviour of the customer.  After the customer’s initial rant, he will be looking for a response from you.  Take this as the opportunity to resolve and build a relationship.

Right or wrong, build a solid relationship with the disgruntled customer

Engage in conversation with the customer; this discussion is a two-way conversation.  Be empathetic towards the customer (not to be phoney, but be genuine in your actions).  Value the feedback and let the customer know that.  These simple methods of tactful communications will get the consumer on your side.

Right or wrong, use strong negotiation skills to find common ground 

The customer may never be happy and may want you to do everything under the sun to make the situation right, including providing the goods or service for free.  Depending on the severity of the scenario, you may have to provide something for free or an alternate product or service at cost.  With the relationship of trust you have built with your customer, you have an opportunity to mitigate the damage and find a mutually acceptable position.  Find what would make you and the customer happy.  If you have moved miles to that mutual ground, don’t be afraid to back down if the customer is still unreasonable.  As a minimum, depending on your jurisdiction, you will have to adhere to consumer regulations around refunds and honouring warranties…no sense in arguing that point.  Leave the scenario knowing you did your best to resolve and that you put effort in to building a relationship and a repeat customer.

Where the customer is clearly wrong, tactfully & transparently state your company’s position

A small fraction of the disgruntled will be completely unreasonable.  Be open and transparent, and inform the customer of your policies and inform of impacts of collective scenarios (such as honouring every complaint in a similar manner).  The customer may leave unhappy but you need to be consistent in your business practices.

Learning experience to build a better Customer Relationship Management Plan

Every scenario you encounter in your business is a learning opportunity. The customer complaint process forms part of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Plan.  Be prepared – part of your business planning exercise would be to build theCRMinto the operational plan.  Be prepared in advance with policies and procedures to handle challenging customers.  Ensure staff is trained to handle customers in an appropriate manner.

Whatever customer challenges arise, be prepared in your business and handle tactfully and professionally.  Your end goal should be to always find mutual resolution and to turn those angry customers into happy return customers.

Strategy Plan One

© Strategy Plan One 2012

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