Monday, August 31, 2009

The Week Ahead Aug 31- Sept 4, 2009

Monday:
Tuesday: August vehicle sales, August institute for supply management index, July construction spending
Wednesday: Second quarter productivity revision, Fed meeting minutes, July factory orders
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims. August institute for supply management services index,
Friday: August employment report

Larson note: We saw another week of “good stuff”. Good consumer spending report (up 0.02%) nice car purchasing (thanks cash for clunkers). Ben Bernanke getting the official nod for a second term as fed chief (good/bad? Don’t really know what I think but could do much worse than Bernanke but then could do better but not from Obama)

This week will be reality check I’m afraid. Unemployment is still down and will stay down well past January, experts want to say March but I am not expecting a birthday present like that in March will not happen and I am looking for later link in May of 2010 for any real job growth. Vehicle sales will be up of course but with cash for clunkers gone it is back the real world for car dealers. You can’t artificially prop up sales forever. BE on the lookout for an appliance program of the same kind later in the year (November). I’m thinking it might be a good time for Mrs. Larson to get a new stove then when the government wants to help pay (give back some of MY {tax} money they are stealing) for a new one. Sadly construction will not be where everyone wants it to be for the summer so Obama money will have to sit on the shelf for a bit. Sadly this is the major provision in the original Obama plan, putting money into infrastructure (roads, bridges, transportation) that I whole heartily endorsed.

On the Larson front, if you are in printing you might be happy to note we are working with a prominent sales trainer in the industry to work together to not only get you leads (us) but to train your salespeople (them) how to close them.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized).

We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday:
Marathon Training 6:15am,
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Friday: :
Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday: In Wisconsin

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 21-22 2009, Mid-Pak Minneapolis MN (Registered but not committed to going yet)
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago
> December 3-5, 2009 Athletic Business Conference & Expo, Orlando FL (Registered but not committed to going yet)


Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Direct Mail & The Environment

Direct mail being what it is, coming from (renewable) trees makes people think that it is environmentally harmful. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Looking over The Direct Marketing Association web site some interesting statistics were found on direct mail.

1. Direct mail is a green way to shop. No travel, no petro chemicals, no hydrocarbons dumped into the air. If Americans would replace only two trips to a mall each year, that is each year, and shop by catalog, we would reduce the number of miles we drive by over 3.3 billion that’s 3,000,000,000. And stop 3 billion pounds of carbon dioxide saving some $650 million in gas purchases.

2. Mail represents only 2.4% of America’s waist and direct mail can be recycled further reducing the impact.

3. In energy use the production of energy to produce direct mail advertising is only 0.19% of energy used in the United States a year.

4. Mail is, as stated above a renewable resource, and most paper comes from trees grown specifically for that purpose, NOT virgin forest trees. In addition the forest industry is making sure that the number of trees each year is increasing so that trees are increasing in number not decreased. Fact is the US has increased the number or acres over the last 3 decades up 5.3million acres.



Larson note: Direct mail is not the enemy. It is in fact a cost effective way to do business and help the environment. The goal of a direct mail campaign needs to be to get a relevant message out to the right people and not waist it on people who have no interest in what your offer is. Do I here list cleaning or buying the right list to mail to?

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. Post card mailer. Direct mail package. Wave mailing campaign. Talk to us and see how to make it happen for your company

Source: Direct Marketing Association

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tapping into the power of SM

How can a company tap into the power of today’s Social Networking Sites? The secret is to create reasons for members of those sites to want to what to hear what your message is. Yes it is really that simple. Look at what I do with my sites. I keep one basic focus and that is business to business sales and marketing thoughts. If my readers follow what I say they probably don’t need the services of my company, IF they can implimant what I am saying! If not, they know I am here for them. They will know how I think and act, so before they make that first approach to talk to us they will know if they want to do business with us. What I write is what my company does, not just for our clients but for us as well

Larson note: Consistency is the key. Don’t waver, don’t stray.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. Need a blog for your company. We can create a site, write your company and post it for you. Call us for details today!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Mastering Issues & Trends For Your Business

A good leader is a master at following issues and trends. Not just by the book or reading but by getting out onto the front line. But what is the best way to do this?

1. Study Up. Pretty easy for most senior management to do. Challenges times require shifting through all the information being thrown at you and turn it into an intelligent study. Yes your job is to make sense of business trends in not only your industry but your customers as well.

2. Listen. Once you have the background put together, you can gain greater inside by going out to your employees, customers and other stake holders (CPA, Banker, and Insurance Agent) and other suppliers. When you talk your findings over with your people they will begin to open up

3. Inspect. You cannot do enough self inspection of your “troops”. This is the best way to collect data. Your troops and personal customer visits

4. Follow up. Hold yourself and your team accountable for all your results and/or non-results. There is no use doing your homework if you are not going to be doing anything with it. It is not only important to act on your information but to make sure people follow through on all initiatives which they have committed to.

Larson note: Stop Look Listen. Then GO. Works for train crossings. Works for business.



Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

3 Steps of People Leadership

In good times and in bad, leadership is still leadership. These 3 actions will get you into a leadership mentality.

1. Go to them. Employees love it when management takes an interest in them. When you go the front line, not only do you demonstrate to your people you care about the work, but that you care about them as a person.

2. Affirm their self-worth. People never tire of being praised by supervisors. They need to hear that their work is important and is consequential. Just make sure it is real sincere praise on things that count not false praise.

3. Stand tall with them. Employees need to know that their leadership has their backs covered. All too often it seems that with things go bad; employees are the first to suffer. You are all part of the same team.

Larson note: People are your company’s biggest asset. We all like to feel that what we are doing is important. That it matters. That management will give us more than lip service. Don’t just say it. Show it! Walk the walk instead of only talking the talk.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. Need a blog written but don’t know where or how to start? Call us. We can make a blog happen for your company.

Monday, August 24, 2009

The Week Ahead Aug 24-28, 2009

Monday:
Tuesday: August Consumer Confidence
Wednesday: July Durable Goods Orders; July New Home Sales
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims
Friday: July Person Income and spending

Larson note:
Last week came out pretty good. Stocks up and existing home sales up 7.2%! Even the Feds are saying things are looking good.

This week? Yes. I think we have turned the corner. If you don’t have your advertising, marketing and sales play in full swing, you had better hope your competition doesn’t either. I believe that the economy works off of three areas, construction, home sales and cars. If these areas are doing well, so will the economy. Think about it.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15am, Tuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15amThursday:
Friday:
Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 21-22 2009, Mid-Pak Minneapolis MN (Registered but not committed yet to going)
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Friday, August 21, 2009

4 Steps Your Business Can Take Now

A successful entrepreneur is by the very definition of the word a positive thinking upbeat person. Yet to know where you are going, having a road map to success to work with can be an essential tool in the growth your business and its development

1. Do annual business planning every week. If a business plan is intended to keep you on track, in this time of great change you might want to step up the “annual” reviews of your (written) plan. At the least do it monthly or bi-weekly but right now, I would strongly urge you to take the time and plan weekly.

2. Be realistic. Goals should be achievable and not pie in the sky. Look at past results; see what you can change to get to where you want to be. This does not have to be big drastic changes. Even small changes can make a big difference.

3. Stop just making do. It might be an ink jet printer witch you really need a color laser printer with stapling and collating capabilities. Set a goal on how to get it and stop putting it off the things you REALLY need.

4. Stop doing what is not working. Don’t spin your wheels doing things that don’t work or take you where you need to go.

Larson note: This is the time for those who have the foresight to be forward thinking. Get yourself focused on the now and push forward into all the opportunities that are opening up in this time of economic turmoil. While your competition is frozen into not knowing where to go and what to do, you can seize the day. If you put in down in writing you will know if you are ahead or behind, if you are on track or have strayed off the road to where you want to go. Try these 4 little ideas and you will get big results.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Advertising To Social Media Networks

Social Media Networks, they are hard to crack into. They are elusive. They are always moving and evolving.

Tradition online advertising consists of banner ads, text ads, email marketing, search engines marketing, pay for clicks. But as most of us in the SM world know this does NOT work on SM sites. People use SM sites in interact, communicate and yes, socialize. The big bad marketer/advertiser needs to create soft selling ads that encourage interaction and dialogue in relevant topics to the site.

Advertisers need to think more in terms of how many times they engage people not on a wide broad based scale but in one on one dialogue.

Larson note: If you are not ready to engage don’t come into the water. Talk to me, not at me. If you’re not ready to go swimming stay on the sun deck and watch on the side. Be a big fish in a little pond.


Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What to look for in future CRM Software

As businesses and customers are becoming more tech savvy and relying more and more on there moble devices and online interactive web communities what should you as a business person be looking for in your next generation of CRP software? As Web 2.0 technology evolves, as web applications combine data from more than one source this too can and should be done with your CRM system.

For example take Google Maps. By incorporating Google Maps into a CRM system you can plot out all the locations of your customers and leads. You could then schedule your f2f appointments easier and faster and with a higher degree of proficiency giving you hopefully a higher degree of ROI.

Larson note: I am still a walking map. I find errors in Map quest results. Ask my wife. I can plot out a sting of sales appointments with pin point accuracy with no zig zagging From Milwaukee thru Chicago down to Gary and out to Morris and Rockford. But why not make it easier on yourself and use technology? Mapping is only one area you can use. Cross reference trade shows, Cross reference social networks.

Got any other areas where CRM can go and do? I would love to hear them.



Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

FTC Ponder Regulating the Blog and SM sites

Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death ~ Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

Then the United States started to create bureaucratic organizations to let unelected people impose “laws” on us to control us!

And now the FTC's has concerns. As if it does not have enough to do. They are worried that some bloggers may not disclose that they're earning commissions from a company when they write a blog that promotes that company's products. “The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer – and getting commissions for any sales from it – would be enough to trigger oversight,” the reporter wrote. WHO REALY CARES?

We all should watch this issue to see how it plays out. It is of course possible that the FTC might back away from any strict regulations if bloggers are more transparent about financial disclosure. That's the path that all bloggers should probably be doing anyway as an official spokesperson for a company although it is usually pretty obvious if someone is being one sided about a particular product or company anyway. You build more trust with your readers when you're up front having vested or a financial interest in the topic.

Existing FTC rules already ban deceptive and unfair business practices. But bloggers are not included in the existing regulations, so that's one reason the FTC is looking at implementing new guidelines. The huge field of online affiliate marketing could be brought under the new guidelines, and it is likely to include Twitter posts as well as blogs.

* Christian Science Monitor

Larson note: While this might seem somewhat daunting, it will not affect your ability to be an effective marketer, as long as you adhere to the guidelines. Ya right more rules and regulations by Unelected bureaucrats! As for the Larson Blog, we only represent ourselves and our ideas. If we like something we will say it loud and clear but not for pay. If you want to pay us, we will and can write your blog, but it would be your company’s blog, not ours.



Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Monday, August 17, 2009

The Week Ahead Aug 17-21, 2009

Monday:
Tuesday: July Producer Price Index, July Housing Starts
Wednesday:
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims July Leading Economic Indicators
Friday: July Existing Home sales

Larson note: Last week came out pretty much what I expected it to be. Inventory levels lower, Production higher, and a boosts in productivity levels. This will all work out to our advantage in a month as those low inventory levels need to be refilled, perhaps not up to previous levels but higher than what they are now. Start getting yourself ready!

This week? Another good week statically. Think your short term marketing plans over. Do they need a revamp? Get it done today and start implementing tomorrow. Now is the time.

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15am,
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Thursday:
Friday: 10:00 Out of office appointment
Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Friday, August 14, 2009

How Are Customers Finding Suppliers

With a lagging economy many customers are looking at ways to cut costs, get faster shipments; use Just In Time inventory methods. Use a multisupplier base. How are they finding companies to sell to them?

58% Trade magazines
53% Word of mouth
52% Search engine marketing
51% Distributors
49% Electronic newsletters
46% Third party websites
44% Trade shows (f2f)
40% Webinars
32% Other
25% Trade shows (virtual)
21% Social Networking
15% Community based activities
12% Cold call

Larson note: As a business owner how many of these top 12 marketing channels (not including other) are you using? As a business owner how many of these top 12 channels at you using at least a 75% capacity. For use at Larson’s, I put our number at 7 of them.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Go Electronic For Proposals

If you’re still using paper contracts for business you are keeping an unnecessary lag in keeping a sale or contract moving forward quickly. Using a web based electronic signature or even emailing out your proposals or contracts will save 4 to 5 days in moving forward. Yes 1 full week! By closing the paper trail gap you can reduce errors accelerate time to close, cut costs and have real time visibility in each (pending) contract. And not only that you can save a tree or two along the way


Larson note: I have been doing electronic invoicing, proposals and contracts for over 2 years now. You want to shorten your sales cycle? Go electronic. You can achieve in one day what will take 2 to 3 weeks non-electronically. Email a contact, make changes, email out again, tweak some minor points and get it done! It’s about speed in moving business forward, and yes its “green” also

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Twitter: Little Network of Connections

Twitter Facts
Founded: 2007
US Unique Monthly Visitors: 21.0 million
Year to year growth: 1,928%
Average monthly user time spent: 31 minutes, 17 seconds
Age demographics: 65+ 7.6%, 50-64 22.9%, 35-49 34.8%, 18-34 28.5%, 12-17 4.7% 2-11 1.5%
Female 56% Male 44%
Household incomes: $150k+ 9.3%, 100-149k 16.4%, 75-99k 18.8%, 50-74k 23.9%, 25-49% 20.8%, 0-24k 7.5%, No response in survey 3.3%
Top 500 E-retailers with Twitter account 143 (listed in the Internet top retailer Top 500 guide)

This seems to be the year of the twitter. It’s quick and easy, down and dirty, fast and quick, all in 140 characters or less. At 21 million unique visitors a month Twitter is the little guy in the Big 4 (Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter) As a business or retailer you can approach Twitter from the passive side of active side. The fun thing is, no one knows what really works yet! Passive businesses can sit back and monitor themselves. Active businesses can tweet everyday on things that are customer related to marketing to their followers and customers. Twitter is a mix of sales, conversation and customer service. Heck even I have been found by prospects wanting to connect before even buying from me.


Larson note: Call it what you will, SM marketing, micro blogging, twitter is a phenomenon that just seems to keep growing and growing, with users who are very highly engaged. As a business you can test the power of your twitter followers and offer twitter only specials just to see what your reach is

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

MySpace: Better Opportunities in Some Areas

MySpace Facts
Founded: 2003
US Unique Monthly Visitors: 62.3 million
Year to year growth: 6%
Average monthly user time spent: 2 hours, 26 minutes, 58 seconds
Age demographics: 65+ 3.6%, 50-64 15.8%, 35-49 29.1%, 18-34 34.8%, 12-17 11.8 2-11 4.9%
Female 57% Male 43%
Household incomes: $150k+ 5.1%, 100-149k 12.0%, 75-99k 16.0%, 50-74k 27.2%, 25-49% 21.0%, 0-24k 9.6%, No response in survey 3.2%
Top 500 E-retailers with Facebook page 143 (listed in the Internet top retailer Top 500 guide)

MySpace has been losing ground to Facebook by leaps and bounds but it still can pack a big push for the right kind of business. It has been a bit stagnenat as to different features and functions compared to Facebook and its reputation for being the place for bands, not BRANDS, as cause it some advertising trouble.

MySpace will give you more graphical freedom than Facebook but that might be a hindrance that a help. MySpace profiles do not look all the same, giving some of them rather creasy haphazard appearances.

The audience is still huge and if it is your target audience you need to be there! If you are looking for a younger crowd this is the place. Music buffs this is where you want to be. It’s all about engaging the RIGHT customers and having a positive experience with your company. Are these the demographis you want to attack?

Larson note: If you selling younger fashions, clothing, shoes, make-up music anything my 20 year old daughter might want be on MySpace. If you sell to the 18-49 age profile you have 39,940,800 people out there. But today I notice that MySpace is trying to do some upgrading. Social Media wars?

Wednesday’s Bog will cover Twitter.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

http://www.myspace.com/larson_associates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Monday, August 10, 2009

The Week Ahead Aug 10-14, 2009

Monday:
Tuesday: 2nd Quarter Productivity, June Wholesale Inventory
Wednesday: June Trade Balance,
Thursday: Weekly initial jobless claims July Retail Sales, June Business Inventories
Friday: July Consumer Price
Index, July Industrial Production

Larson note: Well 2 good weeks in a row do I hear 3? I’m thinking yes. Despite the high unemployment rate things are will continue to look good. I’m hoping for low inventory levels which lead to higher production levels. Retail sales, well? Wait till August.

At Larson’s our inventory levels of unused “man hours” is lower than a month ago. Our production levels were higher than a year ago and out output levels have increased over 100% over a year ago

The focused industries we are looking to add clients in for the month are Advertising Specialties, Trade Show Booth Builder, Sign Shop, and a Graphic Design Studio, and Printer (small and mid-sized) and looking to add more accounts in the eastern and pacific time zones. We are also looking for sales persons in New England, Texas and Southern California.

Howard’s out of office public schedule for the week:
Monday: Marathon Training 6:15am,
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Marathon Training 6:15am
Thursday: 10:00 Out of office appointment
Friday:
Saturday: Marathon Training Long Group Run
Sunday:

Trade show schedule:
> September 22-24 2009: Assembly Show Stevenson Convention Center
> September 29- October 1, 2009: Motivation show McCormick Place
> October 5-7, 2009, Parcel Forum 09 Hyatt Regency O’Hare
> October 22nd, 2009: 2009 Midwest Fall Business Expo Serb Hall Milwaukee, WI
> November 15-18, 2009 Fabtech Int. & AWS Welding Show McCormick Place, Chicago

Time slots still available to meet & talk over coffee.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Friday, August 7, 2009

How Do You Justify Customer Care Costs

25% Higher Customer Satisfaction Scores
18% Increased Revenue
12% Reduction In Customer Turnover
9% Increase In Repeat Sales
0% Other

*Customer Satisfaction Business Impact Diagnosis, Gantry Group LLC, June 2009

8% Higher Customer Satisfaction Scores
42% Increased Revenue
8% Reduction In Customer Turnover
23% Increase In Repeat Sales
17% Other

*Unscientific Ning Pole

Larson note: I found this very interesting in comparing a scientific pool with one out of our Ning here. Seems we on ning are more about actual sales and results while the “big guys” are more interesting in how people rate them. Me, I’ll take the sale every time, thank you.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://ultimateconnection.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Facebook: The King the Hill For SM Retailing

Facebook Facts
Founded: 2004
US Unique Monthly Visitors: 87.3 million
Year to year growth: 198%
Average monthly user time spent: 4 hours, 39 minutes, 33 seconds
Age demographics: 65+ 6.3%, 50-64 20.5%, 35-49 32.0%, 18-34 28.0%, 12-17 7.8 2-11 5.4%
Female 57% Male 43%
Household incomes: $150k+ 7.8%, 100-149k 16.4%, 75-99k 19.1%, 50-74k 26.4%, 25-49% 21.0%, 0-24k 6.0%, No response in survey 3.3%
Top 500 E-retailers with Facebook page 284 (listed in the Internet top retailer Top 500 guide)

Facebook is becoming the network of choice for 56.8% of the top 500 e-trailers compared to 28.6% on MySpace. Part of the reason is because of the shift that Facebook did to redesign the pages that businesses could create making them more interactive and making it possible for those pages to become part of a company’s Facebook fan home page and with news feeds (such as my companies blog posts gong to my Facebook page).

In the past a fan of a company would visit your brand once in a while, while now if you become a fan, they become almost like a personal friend.

Facebook is now going beyond conventional online marketing. A company can use their fan base as a virtual focus group. They can see what interests and motivates their fan base as a group or on a one-on-one basis to discuss products and answer questions.

Larson note: If you work at creating a following AND fan base you can use Facebook quite effectively. What is important is to go into it (or any SM Marketing) with a plan laid out ahead of time as to where you want to end up and what kind or results you are looking to achieve. You can always modify your plan as you go but you need to know what you want to achieve first.

Tuesday Bog will cover MySpace.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociates

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

What your SM Site Says About You

Where are you? What SM sites do you frequent? Does it really reflect on you and your business? IN a study by Anderson Analytics you might want to think it through. The survey studied the demographic and psychographics of social networkers and found that there are definite data segments in the SM markets.

110 million Americans or 60% of the online population use various SM networks and that number is rather conservative. Users tend to spend time, a lot of time, on their favorite social networking site(s). The average SM usurer goes to their social sites 5 days a week and check in about 4 times a day for a total of 1 hour a day. The super connected (9%) stay logged in all day long.

Social networkers create a special attachment with the brands they connect with some 52% of them become a fan of at least one brand on a site, Of these 17% were positive, 19% negative, and 64% neutral, This study was taking from a sample of 5000 users.

Let’s have a look at 4 different SM sites:

Facebook
There are 77million users. They are more likely to be married (40%) white (80%) and retired (6%) with an average income of $61,000. Face book users then to be a bit older and are more likely to be late adopters of SM. They are a loyal group with 75% saying facebook is their favorite site and 59% saying they have increased their facebook usage.

MySpace
For the most part MySpace people are young and fun loving. With 64 million users it is still a viable source to be in (especially if you’re into music). They are more into fun, humor, music, video games then sports and exercise. With an average income of $44,000 with an average of 131 connections there is a greater chance at reaching the Black (9%) or Hispanic (7%) then the other sites, with 60% single and 23% still students.

LinkedIn
This is where people come to do business. (although Ecademy is working on catching up) This is a site that has more men (57%) than woman (47%) and the highest average income at $89,000 they are more likely to be there for business and not for fun. Members are more into gyms, spas yoga, gold and tennis. If you in for b2b you have to BE here!

Twitter
This is the super users group. Twitters are more interested that anyone in almost anything on the planet, but move more into restaurants sports politics personal finance and religion. Twitters are more entrepreneurial than the other sites. They are more likely to work part time (16%) with an average income of $58,000 with 43% saying they could not live without it.


Larson note: Where do you want to make your mark in the SM business world, Are you a big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond? Pick your poison and make your claim. Personal I so some big site marketing and a lot of little SM site marketing.

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson


http://www.myspace.com/larson_associates
http://www.facebook.com/LarsonAndAssociates
http://www.linkedin.com/in/larsonassociates
https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Company SM Marketing Coordination

One of the biggest challenges companies have or may have is getting involved or how deep to get involved in the SM Marketing revelation. SM deeply stresses out the PR and legal departments of companies because making sure you have the right information going out to people is crucial to their jobs. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, nings like TeamCircle and Business Warfare, Merchants Circle all have a place in your overall marketing planning.

Larson note: Where are you? For many business SM marketing is like the Dr. Seuss book Horton Hears a Who. It takes everyone, yes EVERYONE working together to be heard in the SM clutter. But it takes everyone working and pulling in the same direction. Then shout out loud and clear, “We are here, we are here we are here”!

Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
howard@larsonassociates.ws
http://www.larsonassociates.ws
http://larsonassociates.blogspot.com
http://member.merchantcircle.com/larsonassociates
http://businesswarfare.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://teamcircle.ning.com/profile/HowardLarson
http://www.businessiibusiness.com/profile/HowardLarson

https://twitter.com/LarsonAssociate

P.S. We make telesales for small business affordable by offering programs down to only 15 hours a week. Maybe you could add telesales into your marketing mix call today and find out.

P.P.S. We are offering 2 free (a $75.00 value) ½ hour consultation periods per week to talk about marketing businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.