Buyers reporting a decrease in commodody prices in January.
48%
While prices are low, demand for materials is down. Only 4% of buyers polled in January plan to increase inventories and 61% said incoming orders were down.
Buyers who say business is down compared to last month
59%
Most areas are down but in a micro economy they don’t have to be. Look over your “kingdom” and start making your mark in market share.
Electronic purchasers who say they are cutting inventory levels
61%
With the downturn, lead times are sort and there is no need to carry much inventory. Is this a good time to test Just In Time inventory with your key suppliers?
November drop in BTS freight transportation index
41%
The tsi index which measures changes in the output of freight transportation services, hit its lowers level since January 2004.
Buyers reporting a drop in transportation costs in January
58%
A year ago only 4% of buyers reported freight cost in decline while 75% were reporting increases.
Amount of goods that the U.S. imports or exports by water
78%
A report says that government support for the system of freight transport must anticipate and respond to a potential bottleneck that could serve to undermine any economic growth.
Larson note: Ok so commodity prices are down. What are your future needs in the short (6 month) term? If you can swing it I might be an excellent time to make your next purchase a little larger than normal. Or if you are looking to keep your inventory low a good tactic might be to let your suppliers can carry your inventory at current prices on their books. Ask. As for transportation, this could be the right time to lock in a long term contract or get a more favorable discount over posted rates. Sure can’t hurt to ask can it? For us at Larson’s, we are still in a double digit percent growth pattern. It is a nice feeling with the aggressive growth plan we put together for the year. Do your sales match your business plan so far?
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Beureau of Transportation, purchasing magazine
Friday, February 27, 2009
Why Buying Local Matters
Where did you go last time you bought a CD? Online or down the street to the local store? How about that digital camera or I-pod?
Where you buy things does matter. It does not have to be a choice on what is cheaper, faster, better, or more convenient. Right now there should be one more element that is important. If you don’t buy from a local or at least US company (if you are not an American company just plug in your own countries name) why should those same people buy from your company? When we purchase local we keep our neighbors employed. It’s a fact that for every $100 spent locally, $45 is returned to the area’s or country’s economy according to a report by Civic Economics, a consulting and research firm.
Buying online or overseas might save on sales tax but those dollars help pay for basic services like police, fire and schools?
It is easy to help our community and countries get though this economic mess just by taking a little time to consider where the manufacturing of the products we buy is.
Larson note: Think locally, with a global perspective. From my view point, in the times I have made sales calls on foreign own companies 99% of the time they are buying there art and design, their printing and marketing form their country of origin. Even there telemarketing centers are set in the Philippians and India. And don’t think I have not tried, I even went as far as to have double sided business cards printed in both English and Japanese to no avail. If they buy from me, great Ill buy form them. If not? Think about it. If Americans are not employed and making money to spend on my products and services who will. And if I don’t support local and US employment, who will?
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations a week for marketing your business. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Civic Economics
Where you buy things does matter. It does not have to be a choice on what is cheaper, faster, better, or more convenient. Right now there should be one more element that is important. If you don’t buy from a local or at least US company (if you are not an American company just plug in your own countries name) why should those same people buy from your company? When we purchase local we keep our neighbors employed. It’s a fact that for every $100 spent locally, $45 is returned to the area’s or country’s economy according to a report by Civic Economics, a consulting and research firm.
Buying online or overseas might save on sales tax but those dollars help pay for basic services like police, fire and schools?
It is easy to help our community and countries get though this economic mess just by taking a little time to consider where the manufacturing of the products we buy is.
Larson note: Think locally, with a global perspective. From my view point, in the times I have made sales calls on foreign own companies 99% of the time they are buying there art and design, their printing and marketing form their country of origin. Even there telemarketing centers are set in the Philippians and India. And don’t think I have not tried, I even went as far as to have double sided business cards printed in both English and Japanese to no avail. If they buy from me, great Ill buy form them. If not? Think about it. If Americans are not employed and making money to spend on my products and services who will. And if I don’t support local and US employment, who will?
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations a week for marketing your business. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Civic Economics
Thursday, February 26, 2009
SEO is Both Important and Misunderstood
In a survey companies said overwhelming said that search engine submission optimization (SEO) is an active part of their online marketing efforts and that they believed it accounted for a significant portion of their web traffic, but many of those same companies identified SEO tactics, like purchasing links, as an effective way to boost their pages' performance.
The survey was conducted over the entire month of January 2009, and had 117 qualified ecommerce merchants respond. Collectively, 94 percent of the merchants said that SEO was part of their current marketing efforts. And 62.4 percent believed that their SEO efforts accounted for 50 percent or more of their site traffic.
When asked about effective SEO tactics, the majority of companies correctly identified forthright, effective, and ethical SEO practices like keyword-focused content, internal linking, and siloing.
It was clear that many of the companies surveyed did not understand the difference between good SEO tactics and questionable ones, even those bordering on unethical practices. For example, 69.5 percent of respondents said that purchasing paid links was a somewhat effective SEO tactic. But paid links that transfer PageRank are really an attempt to trick a search engine into displaying less qualified results. Moreover, 53.9 percent of those surveyed said that keyword stuffing, another poor and potentially unethical practice, was at somewhat effective.
Only 25.6 percent of these companies surveyed had ever hired a paid SEO professional to help them. Many of the respondents said that SEO services were just too expensive for their company or that they believe there was enough information available for free to do a good job without professional help or training.
Larson note: It is true that most of the professional seo do not know the exact way of effective SEO techniques, as many of them use software such as web SEO, elite SEO software and don’t do much more. For an effective marketing of site to rank: keywords in content and a good title tag are necessary.
If there are any companies who would be interested in setting up a reciprocal link with our respect websites let me know. It could be arranged if there is a good synergy between us.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Armando Roggio
The survey was conducted over the entire month of January 2009, and had 117 qualified ecommerce merchants respond. Collectively, 94 percent of the merchants said that SEO was part of their current marketing efforts. And 62.4 percent believed that their SEO efforts accounted for 50 percent or more of their site traffic.
When asked about effective SEO tactics, the majority of companies correctly identified forthright, effective, and ethical SEO practices like keyword-focused content, internal linking, and siloing.
It was clear that many of the companies surveyed did not understand the difference between good SEO tactics and questionable ones, even those bordering on unethical practices. For example, 69.5 percent of respondents said that purchasing paid links was a somewhat effective SEO tactic. But paid links that transfer PageRank are really an attempt to trick a search engine into displaying less qualified results. Moreover, 53.9 percent of those surveyed said that keyword stuffing, another poor and potentially unethical practice, was at somewhat effective.
Only 25.6 percent of these companies surveyed had ever hired a paid SEO professional to help them. Many of the respondents said that SEO services were just too expensive for their company or that they believe there was enough information available for free to do a good job without professional help or training.
Larson note: It is true that most of the professional seo do not know the exact way of effective SEO techniques, as many of them use software such as web SEO, elite SEO software and don’t do much more. For an effective marketing of site to rank: keywords in content and a good title tag are necessary.
If there are any companies who would be interested in setting up a reciprocal link with our respect websites let me know. It could be arranged if there is a good synergy between us.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Armando Roggio
Still More Bottom Line Priority Thinking
Here are still more low-cost CRM ideas and strategies for when your money is tighter than tight.
1) Conduct interviews with your best customers to find out what they want form you or how you might improve.
2) Fire your worst customers. The ones that are the black holes of your bottom line no matter how you try to do the right thing.
3) Engage in innovation discussions with your employees at the lowers possible level.
4) Set Plans and goals for the future and share them with you customers and seek their opinion. Remember they are a “stake holder in and of your business.
5) Train and retrain employees. And do it as a reward not as a punishment.
6) Ask customers and employees what they don’t need or want from you.
7) Sign up but remember time spent on free trials is also a cost.
8) Look for ways to get more out of your CRM system that goes beyond the basics. There is a wealth of information in those records.
9) Clean up your data. The cleaner your data the more usable and useful your data.
10) Do the little things Write those thank yous, remember your client’s favorite team, their hobbies and passions in life, and pick up the phone rather than a quick email.
Larson note: Push yourself. Get the dead weight out and set yourself free.IN suing every one you can for ideas you might find that golden nugget you are looking for. Search and you shall find.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations a week for marketing your business. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Customer Relations Management
1) Conduct interviews with your best customers to find out what they want form you or how you might improve.
2) Fire your worst customers. The ones that are the black holes of your bottom line no matter how you try to do the right thing.
3) Engage in innovation discussions with your employees at the lowers possible level.
4) Set Plans and goals for the future and share them with you customers and seek their opinion. Remember they are a “stake holder in and of your business.
5) Train and retrain employees. And do it as a reward not as a punishment.
6) Ask customers and employees what they don’t need or want from you.
7) Sign up but remember time spent on free trials is also a cost.
8) Look for ways to get more out of your CRM system that goes beyond the basics. There is a wealth of information in those records.
9) Clean up your data. The cleaner your data the more usable and useful your data.
10) Do the little things Write those thank yous, remember your client’s favorite team, their hobbies and passions in life, and pick up the phone rather than a quick email.
Larson note: Push yourself. Get the dead weight out and set yourself free.IN suing every one you can for ideas you might find that golden nugget you are looking for. Search and you shall find.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations a week for marketing your business. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Customer Relations Management
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Low Cost Ways to Market Your Business
It’s not nice out there. You, me, everyone is getting hit from all sides. You want to push your business ahead but funds are running on empty for marketing. So what can a business owner or marketing manager do?
First change the way you are thinking from spending on marketing tools to investing on smart strategic execution.
You need to use this slow down to think about how to make smart investments rather than more. Take a hard look at the assets you currently have in your company and change those in ways that can help build your business. Write or have your people write content that can be used as bogs, newsletters or whitepapers. These can be used to capture names and create an email list.
You can use these papers as content to boost your search visibility or added content on your web site. You can also make yourself into an industry or topical expert where clients and prospects turn to when they need advice.
You can push out press releases and place them on your site as well as distributed to the free online PR sites as well as traditional newspapers.
Larson note: You need to use what you got at hand or improve those things you are now using or use them in a more complete way. You object is, even in a downturned economy to put your name out in front of people any way possible, to get your web site more active and more visible to the various search engines. Don’t go putting more money, that you don’t have into your marketing, just use and refine what you got going on better.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Lorrie Thomas
First change the way you are thinking from spending on marketing tools to investing on smart strategic execution.
You need to use this slow down to think about how to make smart investments rather than more. Take a hard look at the assets you currently have in your company and change those in ways that can help build your business. Write or have your people write content that can be used as bogs, newsletters or whitepapers. These can be used to capture names and create an email list.
You can use these papers as content to boost your search visibility or added content on your web site. You can also make yourself into an industry or topical expert where clients and prospects turn to when they need advice.
You can push out press releases and place them on your site as well as distributed to the free online PR sites as well as traditional newspapers.
Larson note: You need to use what you got at hand or improve those things you are now using or use them in a more complete way. You object is, even in a downturned economy to put your name out in front of people any way possible, to get your web site more active and more visible to the various search engines. Don’t go putting more money, that you don’t have into your marketing, just use and refine what you got going on better.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Lorrie Thomas
How To Be An Industry Expert
If you want to be the (Wo)man in your industry. The person people think of when they need answers. That special go-to person you need to define what your specialty is. Mark your territory. Claim your rightful place.
Think about who you are, your knowledge base, your experience, your background and how you can relate them to the world as we know it today. Then find a way for potential clients and editors to make the connection between you, your topics, your answers and the issues affecting people today.
A few ways to do this is to place your bio on your web site and blogs. Arrange speaking engagements, seminars, workshops, lectures, panel discussions at clubs, associations and industry events. Have these recorded and (if good) make it available as a podcast on your site.
Larson note: Stand out from the crowd. The world is looking, waiting for leaders who will step up and speak their mind on issues. Being an industry leader is not for the faint of heart. It takes guts, courage and moxy to be the (Wo)man.
And for the record, yes I do talk in public F2F, belly to belly.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Julie Springer, Leapfrog Online
Think about who you are, your knowledge base, your experience, your background and how you can relate them to the world as we know it today. Then find a way for potential clients and editors to make the connection between you, your topics, your answers and the issues affecting people today.
A few ways to do this is to place your bio on your web site and blogs. Arrange speaking engagements, seminars, workshops, lectures, panel discussions at clubs, associations and industry events. Have these recorded and (if good) make it available as a podcast on your site.
Larson note: Stand out from the crowd. The world is looking, waiting for leaders who will step up and speak their mind on issues. Being an industry leader is not for the faint of heart. It takes guts, courage and moxy to be the (Wo)man.
And for the record, yes I do talk in public F2F, belly to belly.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Julie Springer, Leapfrog Online
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Consumer Food Spending
Consumers are cutting their food spending by 3.7% in the fourth quarter from the previous 3 months.
-15.9% Beer at home
- 2.7% Wine at home
- 0.9% Liquor at home
- 1.2% Fast food
- 3.8% Eating out
- 5.1% Candy
Larson note: The most disturbing thing (keep in mind this is form a month and a half ago) is that this was during the holiday season. If it was at different time I would not wonder so much.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Commerce Department
-15.9% Beer at home
- 2.7% Wine at home
- 0.9% Liquor at home
- 1.2% Fast food
- 3.8% Eating out
- 5.1% Candy
Larson note: The most disturbing thing (keep in mind this is form a month and a half ago) is that this was during the holiday season. If it was at different time I would not wonder so much.
Howard Larson
Larson & Associates
Target Marketing & Telesales Professionals for new account acquisition
Making good businesses great and great businesses even better
847-991-0488
larsonassoc1975@yahoo.com
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
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 ½ hour consultations per week to talk about marketing for businesses. Call or email to get your spot to pick my brain for 30 minutes today.
*Source: Commerce Department
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