Paarl Wellington Coffee News

There are a ton of social media websites that you can participate in today like LinkedIn and Friendster, and they all have their good and bad points. The best way to choose a community to participate in is to look at the people who have already joined.

For many, Facebook is quite possibly the best site for networking personally and professionally. Millions also use LinkedIn and Twitter. Of all the social networks, Facebook offers the most abundant and unique platform, network and tools when it comes to all around marketing and networking. Facebook is an attractive tool for marketing, PR and brand building – and an excellent tool to add to your marketing mix.

Following are 10 ways you can use Facebook to introduce new people to you, your company and your products & services for free!

1. Make a Top-Notch Profile: This is absolutely the first thing that you must do to make an impact on Facebook. Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. An effective profile will include a photo of you. Don’t use the one of you at a Christmas party, unless that’s what you’re selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. You should include your contact information, your web address (this is so important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is what makes Facebook a great platform – the ability to make friends, build relationships and foster them. The more relationships you build, the more worthwhile your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook’s own tools to find friends that are already on Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for kindred spirits. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One cool feature on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build an extensive network in no time.

3. Join Facebook Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are associated with what you do, or whom you’re targeting. There are groups for wealth building, coaches, and experts of all kinds. Almost every conceivable type of professional service provider has some type of online group. I belong to several groups on Facebook and have made hundreds of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Facebook Group or Fan Page: Can’t find a group that really makes sense? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, carry on discussions, and probably build some long lasting relationships. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the opportunity to be the trendsetter!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your own blog on your Facebook profile page. This inherently means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure = More Readers = More Leads = More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site.

6. Comment on Other Peoples Profiles: Are you a fan or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my business acquaintances check their Facebook messages more regularly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel comfortable sending a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “I enjoy your work!” blurb on their wall. All profiles come with “virtual walls” where friends and acquaintances can leave messages. The more messages you leave on your friend’s Facebook profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Launching a New Service? Create an events page and invite all your friends and acquaintances. You can even see who RSVP’d and get feedback from your guests. Marketing doesn’t get much simpler (or cheaper!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a bouquet of flowers to a potted plant that actually sits on your friend’s profile and grows over time (plus hundreds of others). With all the 3rd party applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for? This is a proven way to build long lasting relationships!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally tons of applications that were built just for the site. Gaming, music, movie trivia and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these interesting little applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay in touch with your Facebook friends. Again, this helps you build long lasting relationships.

10. Create a Community: Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it lets you to build a community. It provides you a group of people who are personally connected to you, and they are open to hearing what you have to say. Write on people’s walls, give them feedback, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for business building! Facebook is a great place to introduce yourself to a ton of new people who may also become customers and/or clients.

Just keep two things in mind: 1) Don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. 2) Never sell, push advertising or push your service offerings. Facebook is a tool, and should be considered as such when integrated within your marketing strategy. When you use the tips above – use them wisely, and have a little fun at the same time!

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington business, paarl wellington marketing

Networking is the process of sharing knowledge, helping others and developing mutually beneficial relationships. Serendipity is the lucky tendency to find interesting or valuable things by chance. Mix the two forces, and you’ve got a sure-fire formula to boost your business.

Now, I understand the Catch-22: if it’s serendipity, how can you plan it? Well, you’re right – you can’t. But you can do a few things to be more aware of it and prepare yourself to leverage it.

What is Serendipity Networking?

First and foremost, serendipity networking is unexpected. You never know whom you’re going to meet! So don’t discount the power of each person to affect your business or even your life.

Secondly, being at the right place at the right time is good; but being at the wrong place at the wrong time can be better!

Next, serendipity networking is powerful. I mean really powerful. How many times have you met a valuable contact and said, “Wow! The planets must have been aligned tonight!” “The Gods have smiled down upon me!” or “What are the odds of meeting someone as perfect as him?”

Warning Signs That Networking is in the Air

• Do you see the same person time and time again at similar meetings and events? Great! You are experiencing “Networking Dejavu,” and it’s not an accident. This is a person with whom you obviously share common interests. So go talk to him! There’s a good chance you can help each other.
   
• Have you ever walked away from a coffee shop, bar, store, gym, church, mailbox, park, train, street corner or bus and said to yourself, “Thank God I had one of my business cards with me today!’ What a great feeling! Remember, chance encounters like these may be more valuable than you think.
   
• Did you recently have a business conversation that contained the words, “A friend of a friend,” or, “I don’t know how I ended up at your website, but…”? Perfect. Localize this connection; then generate mutually valuable information and CPI’s (Common Points of Interest).
   
• A person called, emailed, wrote or contacted you because “something made her think of you.” This should set off an alarm. Discover what associations were made so you can learn how to recreate that tipping point in the future.

7 Serendipity Networking Tips

1. Talk to everybody. We are conditioned not to talk to strangers, but some people enter our lives and change them forever.
    
2. Be nice and help people. Reciprocity is an inherent human need. Go out of your way to extend kindness, friendliness and assistance to everyone – they are likely to pay you back.
    
3. Keep a list of your “People Collection.” Whether you use a journal, database software or bar napkins, make sure you write down the names of every person you meet – not just business contacts. You never know when, 6 months down the road, an idea will pop into your head and you’ll need to call someone.
    
4. Get out there. Make a weekly/monthly networking plan. Serendipity networking has a lot to do with being at the right place at the right time. And although you can’t create serendipity, you can certainly put yourself in a position to grab it when it crosses your path.
    
5. Always have business cards. Always. Most of your networking won’t occur between Monday and Friday from 9-5. So remove the following phrase from your vocabulary: “I don’t have any of my business cards with me right now.” No excuses. Unexpected conversations are the stuff serendipity networking is made of.
    
6. Always have something free to give away. People like free stuff. They also like to show it to other people.
    
7. Wear your nametag. A person’s name is the single context of human memory most apt to be forgotten. So, at a meeting or event when you’re given the chance to remind someone who you are – do it. They’ll thank you by approaching you. And possibly by giving you millions of dollars.

Luck is Not a Word

For effective serendipity networking, remember the three L’s: Listen, Localize and Leverage.

• Listen: the most important communication tools you own are your ears. Keep them open for iceberg statements – key phrases under which 90% of the remaining important information awaits.

• Localize: If you’ve ever been stricken with food poisoning, the first thing you always do, is localize your sickness. Serendipity networking is the same way. Retrace your steps and discover where the rock created the ripple.

• Leverage: After you’ve identified which person, event, situation, letter, gossip, or bathroom stall writing or was responsible for the spark and development of a mutually valuable relationship – make a mental note. Hell, make a post-it note! Do anything that will remind you of the chain of valuable events so in the future you can put yourself in a position where it is likely to happen again.

Serendipity networking takes time. As the definition says, it means a lucky tendency to find interesting or valuable things by chance. Now, you can’t make it happen. But you can make yourself more aware of the warning signs and more accessible to that which fortuitously affects you.

And even if you really do think it’s all about luck, remember: L.U.C.K is an acronym for Laboring Under Correct Knowledge.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington business, paarl wellington marketing

Use your creativity to develop an incentive program that will reward referrals. People like to give referrals and they love to be recognized for giving referrals. And, incentives are one of the most powerful methods of generating more of them.

Incentives can range from gift certificates to purchase discounts to cash payment based on business generated.

The wonderful thing about an incentive program is that it feeds into people’s innate desire to help each other. It is rewarding to know an effort has been successful. Be sure to let your contact know when a referral he or she has made comes through.

Give people a reward that they will really appreciate. One business I know of give people a gift certificate for two at a local restaurant. You could also offer a gift certificate to Exclusive Books or to a local theatre or wine club.

I’ve found a gift certificate to be much more memorable than a cash incentive. The reason is simple – these kinds of rewards make people feel special. Finding the right incentive can be a challenge, but it’s worth it. You will score big by really building your word-of-mouth business.

Here are some different types of referral incentives you can try in your business:

-If you have a waiting room, you can prominently post the names and pictures of people who refer to your business or practice. Give it a heading that proclaims, “We would like to thank the following people for referring a new customer this past month.” People are motivated to get their name recognized up on the board and so they will give referrals.

- You can use a direct mail campaign or new customer kit to encourage your customers to send referrals to you. Create an easy-to-complete referral form and a self-addressed, stamped envelope asking that recipients kindly complete the form and return it. You can also include a discount coupon that your recipients can pass along to a friend.

- When you have a sales event, send a letter or postcard or e-mail inviting customers to bring a friend to the event and get an extra discount.

- Offer a gift certificate during the holidays to make gift giving easy for your customers. Give them additional discounts with a coupon.

- Use coupons to encourage new business such as “buy one and bring your friend.” Or you can offer a “two-for-one” seminar admission.

- Invite your customers to an appreciation event and ask them to bring a guest. Give them both a special gift.

- Ask your current and former clients to pass your name and contact information on to their circle. When finishing a sales cycle with a customer, ask for referral recommendations.

You’ll be amazed at how the action of showing appreciation can generate good will and additional referrals. Once a person gives a referral, they become much more likely to continue to refer people your way. As soon as someone sends you a referral, immediately send them a thank-you gift. A card or quick phone call is the bare minimum.

On the flip side, if a person refers someone to you but gets no recognition or appreciation, he or she probably won’t say anything to you. But, the person is likely to make a comment to a co-worker, friend, or spouse: “Can you believe I didn’t even get a thank you!!!” And no more referrals from that source.

Consider your current referral program. How are you generating referrals? What could you do to create a Referral Incentive Program for your business? Developing a referral program now will save you a lot of time later. By encouraging a steady stream of word-of-mouth advertising, you will find you are getting more pre-qualified leads – a group that is much more likely to make a purchase.

Tags: paarl wellington business, paarl wellington coffee news, paarl wellington marketing

Today, the art of marketing is far more complex than it once was. However, many of the same basic principles still apply. Too often, business owners overlook the basic techniques that have separated successful campaigns from those that never turn a profit. Here is the all time list of effective marketing tips.

 Know your audience. Successful campaigns get that way because marketers know their audience. They fully understand their needs, how to help meet those needs and how to create demand. Knowing and understanding your audience through proper market segmentation means a well targeted campaign that generates a profitable return.

 Focus on the offer. A marketing offer is the driving force of marketing promotions that drive results. In fact, market testing has proven that the offer is the most significant criterion for conversion. Focus on your offer if you want to be successful.

 Split test. Never ever run a campaign without testing something. One of the most common is a split test which allows you to simultaneously test two versions of something. It can be a web page, post card, or email. Split testing is essential for improving performance.

 Never work alone. The most creative ideas come from working with other creative people. Don’t feel like you need to have all the answers or great ideas. You may start with an idea, but an open dialog with creative individuals will make it better.

 Don’t sell on price. I’ve seen so many marketers fail because they sell on price alone. This leads to a discounting war, lower profitability, and often bankruptcy. Rather, focus on creating so much value that the perception of price becomes insignificant.

 Consistent messaging. Consider the entire user experience before you launch a campaign. From email to website to offer, is the prospect having a consistent user experience? If they are, your campaigns stand above 98% of others.

 Create value after the sale. As marketers, it’s our job to understand our market segment and build relationships, not dump people off at the front door of our store and walk away. Focus as much of your energy on building relationships with customers as you do prospects.

 Test. Test. Test. In addition to split testing, you should consider multiple forms of testing in each marketing discipline. For direct mail, test headlines, offers, copy, time of direct mail drop, etc. Consider testing a life long mission.

 Integrated Marketing Works Best. You can’t rely on one form of marketing to carry you to success. It’s okay to generate most of your leads or sales through PPC marketing if you will but what happens when that dries out? Use multiple media sources to meet your goals.

 Nothing can replace experience. You can run out and hire all of the best consultants in the world, but you still have to do the work. Nothing can replace actual experience. It will make you a stronger marketer and more successful in the long term.

Apply these helpful marketing tips if you want to be truly successful. These techniques and tips are applied by successful marketers on a daily basis. The result is an ever growing success rate of marketing success.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington business, paarl wellington marketing, paarl wellington newspaper

Do you find that your prospects are focused on the price of your products and services and often pressure you to give them discounts? You’ve told your prospects in so much detail about all the great value they will receive but they just don’t seem to get it. You know that if only they could see the value in your products and services then price would not be such an issue.

Here are four secrets that will ensure that your prospects will see the value in your products and services so that price is no longer the issue.

Secret #1: Forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy your products and services.

The common trap, that you don’t want to fall into, is to start selling your products and services from the very first conversation with your prospect. Instead, you want to forget about selling and trying to get your prospect to buy your products and services. Just have a conversation and ask the right questions so you can understand their problem and determine, if in fact, you can help them. I call this initial phase the ‘Discover Phase’ and it is where you should be spending the majority of your time in the sales process.

Secret #2: Have your prospect tell you the value (instead of you tell them).

If you tell your prospect about the value you offer, they may or may not see this as relevant, of interest or of value. However if you ask the right questions so your prospect tells you the value of solving their problem, they will then see this value as relevant, of interest and of value. The big difference is that they have told you (and themselves) the value as opposed to you telling them.

Secret Number #3: Have valuable conversations.

The conversations you want to have with your prospect should include so much value that they actually thank you for speaking with them and, in fact, look forward to having more conversations with you. How do you have such conversations? It’s easy really. You see, probably no one has asked your prospect powerful questions which help them get clarity around their problem and what it is costing them. This sort of clarity and information is of great value to your prospect. They will see that you have a valuable skill and they will want to have future conversations with you to continue gaining clarity in other areas. They will see having conversations and having a relationship with you as valuable.

Secret #4: Add your value to their value.

Once your prospect has told you the value they will receive from solving their problem, they will be receptive to listening to how you can add even more value. Not only will they be receptive to listening to how you can add more value but they will also be appreciative of the additional value you can add. This is because, at this stage, they will have effectively sold themselves on taking action to solve the problem and the more value they can see that they will receive; the easier it is for them to justify buying your products and services.

In summary, as a consequence of not selling while you ask the right questions, your prospect will see both the value in solving their problem plus they will see the value in having a relationship with you. You are then in a position to help them justify a buying decision by adding more value to what they have told themselves. This all leads to a decision based on value and not on price.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington coffee news, paarl wellington marketing

New entrepreneurs frequently hear the advice to “be unique” in their marketing. The basic idea is a valuable one — to get attention in a crowded marketplace, you must stand out in some way. Distinguishing your product or service from the competition can make your marketing more effective. Crafting a novel marketing message can attract the notice of more potential customers.

There’s no question that an element of uniqueness in your marketing can make your business more memorable, competitive, and special to your target audience. These are all reasons why being different can be good. But how different should you be?

A student in one of my friend’s classes had noticed there were no display ads for management consultants in his local Yellow Pages. “What a great opportunity,” he thought, “to make my business stand out to prospective clients.” He spent quite a lot per month on a large ad for a full year. The result was not a single phone call, unless you count the ones from people trying to sell him photocopiers and phone systems.

He had neglected to ask his consulting colleagues why none of them had ads in the Yellow Pages. It seemed like a good idea to him, and no one else was doing it, so he pulled out his cheque book. What never occurred to him – and what any experienced colleague could have told him – was that companies don’t choose management consultants from ads in the phone book.

Sometimes you can be too unique for your own good. There’s a lot in sales and marketing that is tried and true. If you decide to forge a completely new trail, you may be attempting an experiment that many others in your field have already tried with no success.

It’s not always just your marketing techniques that are a little too different. The same problem can afflict the product or service you are marketing.

I met someone while networking who had a “unique process” for helping companies resolve conflicts between employee groups. When I asked him to explain his process, he said I would have to experience it to understand it. I inquired how it compared to solutions like mediation or team building, and he told me it was a totally different approach that defied comparison.

Since I knew a company that needed help with a problem like the one he described, I would have liked to refer him. But I couldn’t picture myself calling my friend at the company to say, “Hi, I know someone who says he can fix your problem, but he can’t explain how. You’ll just have to hire him and see.”

Being noticeably different from the competition can help you attract customers and close sales. But claiming that you have no competition is naive. Comparisons to a known quantity can help prospective customers understand where your product or service fits in the range of solutions they are considering. If they can’t compare it to anything, it’s doubtful that they will be able to see how your offering could work.

Creating the perception that your product or service is one of a kind can help you capture people’s attention and make them remember you. But you have to be able to identify the people you want to reach and communicate how you can be of service in words they can understand.

You know those car commercials that go, “Zoom, zoom, zoom?” I had to see those ads dozens of times before I could remember that the car being advertised was a Mazda. “Zoom” was unique alright, but what did it have to do with Mazda? Or with the benefits of owning one?

Definitely look for a unique way to express the benefits you offer to your clients, but make sure it still communicates what you actually do. It’s okay to get creative with your marketing, but don’t bet the rent money on untried techniques.

If you really want to make your marketing more effective, cheaper and less stressful, stop re-inventing the wheel. Find models that work and replicate them. I’m not suggesting that you plagiarize your competitors’ marketing copy, but when you see someone successful in your field, find out what they are doing right, and follow their lead.

Don’t let your business be a victim of “terminal uniqueness” – the belief that you are so different from anyone else that none of the rules apply to you. Being distinctive is good; being eccentric can be unwise.

In this new era of social responsibility, what you don’t do can cost you. “Cause marketing” is now the norm, and customers who visit your website and see your advertising want to know that you share their desire to make the world a better place by supporting an important cause.

If your business or brand doesn’t stand for a cause, consumers may turn to your competitors. The number of consumers who say they would switch from one brand to another if the other brand were associated with a good cause has climbed to 87%, a dramatic increase in recent years.

Even niche markets, such as the nation’s college students, now show a striking preference for brands they believe to be socially responsible. According to a newly released study, nearly 95% of students say they are less likely to ignore an ad that promotes a brand’s partnership with a cause.

There’s a strong connection between entrepreneurship and giving. The challenge is to make your socially responsible efforts a winning proposition for the non-profit group you support, the community and your business. You can master this marketing challenge by following these five important steps:

Step 1. Give from the heart.
Cause marketing works best when you and your employees feel great about the help you’re providing to a non-profit group. So work with an organization you and your team believe in, whether that means supporting the fight on behalf of a national health issue or rescuing homeless pets. What matters most to you, your team and your customers? You’ll work hard to make a difference when you give from the heart.

Step 2. Choose a related cause.
A solid cause-marketing campaign often starts with the right affiliation. So as you go through the non-profit selection process, look for a cause that relates to your company or its products. For example, when Procter & Gamble’s Olay brand skin-care line partnered with the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, its campaign goal was to inspire women to protect their skin from the sun. PR support yielded widespread broadcast, print and online coverage, helping the program attract more than 9,000 individuals for free skin-cancer screenings.

Step 3. Contribute more than money.
For many types of businesses, cause marketing involves donating products or services and not simply writing a cheque. This can help form even stronger consumer associations between what you offer and the good work you do.

Step 4. Formalize your affiliation.
To make your affiliation a win-win for everyone, work with the non-profit you choose to define how it will help your business increase its visibility, brand or company awareness. If the organization has a newsletter or other communications with its constituents, negotiate for opportunities to do joint promotions. Discuss how you will use the organization’s logo and name in your marketing campaigns, and how it, in turn, will use your company logo and name in its press releases, on the organization’s website and in other materials.

Step 5. Mount a marketing campaign.
Success in cause marketing often means motivating an audience to take action, such as making a donation or participating in an event. Using a dedicated marketing campaign, you can reach and persuade the target group while also raising awareness for your business and its commitment to social responsibility.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington business, paarl wellington marketing

Often small businesses assume their market is unchanging and static. They are so tightly focused on trading in their market that they miss the trends in the market around them: they can count their sales, they can describe their customers, they know their competitors but they are blind to the big picture.

Write these four headings on a piece of paper to capture what you know about your environment:

1. Changes in society

What social changes are happening? What demographic changes affect your business? What migration effects have you noticed in your neighbourhood? Are your customers getting older or younger? Do particular age strata, ethnic groups or cultural clusters buy more or less of your products or services?

2. Technology changes

Which new techniques might use costly inputs more efficiently? How could difficult or wasteful processes be avoided using technology? What current products are being displaced? What technology changes are happening to products that are similar to your own?

3. Movements in the economy

Which groups have more or less money? How are prices moving? How is supply and demand interacting? What barriers to market entry are increasing or reducing? What are exports and imports doing to your prices?

4. Politics and government actions

What might your government do to pass laws, assert policies, change taxes and provide subsidies? (repeat this question at local, regional and national levels.) How will changes elsewhere impact your business? What are law-makers doing? What opportunities do you expect? What threats do you fear? What conflicts might impact your supply lines?

Being aware of trends enables you to exploit change

All these questions will stir up what you already know about your market and how it is changing: now assemble the jigsaw pieces into the whole picture.

If you and your business partners schedule 40 minutes every month to discuss your answers, you can start to develop products and services that lead your market, you will begin to anticipate what your customers want tomorrow and your business will cope better with what the outside world throws at you.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington business, paarl wellington marketing

Due to the huge interest that we’ve had with our weekly what’s happening section, have we decided to give this its own page on our website!

To make things easy for our readers, you’ll see that it is in a calendar format with the current month showing. You are welcome to browse to the other months as well. The address is http://coffeenewspw.co.za/diary/

We are striving to create a comprehensive list of all events and what’s going on in the Paarl and Winelands region. Please send us the details if you have an event that you would like us to add for you!

There are many small business marketing strategies that when implemented will get you lots more new business. However, as you are considering various sales prospecting techniques, it is important to also remember what not to do. Here is the most the common mistake small businesses make with their marketing. If you avoid this, your small business marketing solution will pay off with lots more new clients.

The most important trap to avoid is to make sure you do not focus on activities rather than developing a business development process. Here’s the scenario. Business is a bit slow so Michael the Business Owner wakes up one morning and says to himself, “It’s about time we got some new business.” So when Michael arrives at the office he immediately puts in place his Marketing Strategy. “Let’s make some cold calls. Or write some letters. Or update the database. Or write an article.” The list goes on and on.

What Michael has done (which virtually all of us do at some point or another) is to confuse activities with strategy. But why is this a problem? Well, let’s say that Michael sends out some letters or emails. And maybe a few people respond. And maybe Michael actually calls one or two of them. But then he gets busy (or decides that following-up really isn’t that much fun) and he lets the leads grow cold.

Now obviously that’s a waste. But here’s what’s even more wasteful. What do you think the reaction will be from those who responded the first time, when Michael decides to send them another letter during the next slow season? Probably not much.

Getting people to raise their hand and self identify themselves as having interest in your services is a time tested method for effective business development. But whatever method you use to make people aware of who you are and what you do is simply an activity. Sending letters, making cold calls, writing articles, giving a speech, none of these are your marketing strategy. They’re parts of your marketing strategy. It’s important to always remember that they are simply activities.

A marketing strategy has three components to it. A method for making people aware of you. A method for capturing data about those people, and a method for staying in touch. When you have those three components linked together, then you have a marketing process. When they’re not, then all you have is just have a bunch of activities. And the results speak for themselves.

One of the main reasons that marketing fails to yield the results we want is because we focus on the wrong things at the wrong time. If you start to drive traffic when your marketing trap is not established, the result will be that visitors will simply bounce off your site. That is a great waste of money, time and energy. Thus, make sure you’re thinking about a marketing system rather than focusing on marketing activities.

Tags: paarl wellington advertising, paarl wellington marketing, winelands advertising