Tag Archives: business owners

How to: Treat Customers as a SOURCE, not Destination

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Social Media and Customer Engagement

Social media opened the door for businesses and companies to reach customers quickly. In fact, some companies found that having a personal connection with their customers eventually led to a longer buying cycle with over a 179% sale conversion. How cool is that? By understanding the difference between customers as a source and destination, we will look at 4 simple but different ways to treat customers as a source for your business.

#1: Get Them Involved

Instead of pushing them the decision (e.g. a product or a service), get them involved! Listen to what they have to say – it can be ideas, feedbacks and suggestions that can improve your initial plans. After all, it makes sense to listen to those that will be buying from you.

How to do it: Most social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter allows an interactive platform for businesses and individuals alike. Create polls, facilitate discussions, run contests – anything to keep that conversation going.

#2:  Show Your Face

Not literally, giving a human touch to your business does make a difference. A cold, corporate front does not seem to work well on social media networks. They key here is to communicate, talk to your customers and be genuine to everyone of them.

How to do it: Talk to them – drop them a message, reply their posts, ‘like’ what they are doing, ‘retweet’ their content and etc. Basically to be interested in what they are doing as a friend would do for another on social networks.

#3: Let Them Talk

Sure, we love to hear compliments from our customers but they are times where complains and dissatisfaction happen. Do you delete those messages at sight? NEVER! Let customers have their say and address the situation tactfully. Remember, other customers are watching and deleting it often results in a negative impression.

How to do it: Respond within the shortest time possible. Apologizing works in most situations. Provide a short explanation and also request if the customer would like to talk further with a person-in-charge either by phone / email / etc.

#4: Be Transparent

Show them what’s behind the scenes! Nah, you do not need to reveal your secrets but you can always keep your customers engaged by showing them what usually happens in your business. It can be pictures of product sketches or even videos on how to make a donut (if you’re in the donut business).

How to do it: The goal is to keep your customers updated with the latest happenings of your business. Look for opportunities to share them as these ‘backstage’ details often engage customers.

Are Customers A Source or Destination?

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Every business loves customers. They want customers to come back again and again using various promotional campaigns, customer relationship management tools, loyalty programs and more but it just won’t seem to work for some.

Ever wondered why?

Ask yourself: Are your customers a source or destination?

Customers: As a Destination

Traditionally, customers are treated as the destination. It is where businesses want their products / services to land up with – in the hands of their customers, destination. It is where businesses want their brand message to hit – in the minds of their customers, destination. It is where business want response for their campaigns – the participation of their customers, destination.. you get the point.

Businesses that see customers as a destination usually develops a one-way relationship with them, in spite of wanting to build a (two-way) relationship with them.

Customers: As a Source

So, what about treating customers as the source instead? It makes all the difference. It is where businesses take time to listen to their customers – their source of feedback. It is where businesses takes into consideration their customers’ requirements – their source of ideas and innovation. It is where businesses respond to their customers positively – because they know they are the source for their business.

Businesses that see customers as a source creates a two-way relationship with them. A relationship that allows co-creation and co-promotion to take place, allows the growth of fan base and ultimately, the growth of the business itself.

Are your customers a source or destination to your business? You can make the difference!

Next: How to treat customers as a destination, not a source!

Why Local Online Marketing Is Just As Important

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Are you ready to have a Local Business with a Global Advantage?

With the growth of the Internet, mobile web and social media networks, it is no wonder why businesses today are wanting to be online for maximum brand presence and exposure. Nothing wrong with that, but through the course of talking to various clients, it would seem that most businesses are so engrossed in getting GLOBAL exposure, neglecting the potential LOCALLY.

Now, I understand that businesses (especially small businesses) are in the game to make big sales and going into international waters but if you neglect your local audience, chances are, you may not make it internationally as well.

Why is it so?

#1: You’re in for HUGE Competition

It is important to understand that if you’re going global, you need to be even more aware of your competitors. Of course, you may have identified a niche market here and there but you’ll still have to compete your way up to gain web traffic and fans, not to forget the climb up the SEO rankings.

#2: Logistics

This is really simple but many tend to look over this matter. Is your business capable of shipping globally when sales happen? If so, great! But most of the time the answer I receive is “we will see if we can accommodate the request when it happens – we’ll leave it as that for now”. Do you really want to put all the effort to finally get some results, only to react when it happens?

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against your business going global, but am suggesting that you may also want to start off being a champion locally, first. Why?

#1: Sandbox

You can first test your operations / system / procedures to see if they are too complicated to follow, or if there are any loop holes BEFORE going global. This may in return save you time, money and effort since the problem is still within local reach. After all, this can be considered as a “beta” phase to your business.

start by being big locally, then expand!#2: Champion of the Pond

When it comes to online marketing, having a niche (the pond) makes it all the easier, what more if it’s localized. For example, “Advertising Firms in Malaysia” would probably be easier than “Advertising Firms” when it comes to online positioning locally. Start off by getting a foothold in your geographic location, then slowly expand when the time is right. By doing so, you’re also…

#3: Gathering of Supporters

This is important if you’re intending of going global in the long run and social media networks makes it all the easier. Blog comments, Facebook wall posts, Tweets and even tips / recommendations on Four Square allows real people to post real feedbacks about your business and CAN influence prospects’ buying decision. I don’t know about you but if it will make a whole lot of difference to me if I see a product / brand that has a huge fan base with feedback as opposed to none, especially if the business is not based locally.

#4: Additional Visibility

Being visible to your local customers can grant you even more visibility, especially when you’re already the champion in the pond and with a strong fan base! Imagine online reviews or even offline write-ups on local media – all these gives you additional exposure AND lands credibility to your business.

Start looking inwards and you’ll be on your way there! I’ll be happy to hear your thoughts on this topic, too!

An Interesting Beginning to 2011: Positioning for Opportunities

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In case you’re wondering – this site also reveals part of my happenings in life, injecting a little bit more flavour to the site as a whole; something lighter than the usual information dosage :)

I know it has only been a month into the new year but 2011 has been great (and really busy) for me. There are tons of exciting projects lined up this year including online consultancy projects, branding events and more!

Openminds Resources have also recently secured a consultancy project with one of Malaysia’s largest chocolate retailers / manufacturers which is really exciting to the team as it also allows us to get an exclusive insight to the chocolate industry in Malaysia and not to forget, delicious chocolate tours. I will also be sharing updates on this project, granting you – awesome readers insight as we take on this project on online positioning, marketing and social media.

Interestingly, I was also offered an opportunity to be a part time lecturer at one of Malaysia’s top IT universities – Asia Pacific University College of Technology & Innovation (APIIT / UCTI). This is definitely an interesting experience as I too, graduated from the very same university.

Standing and sharing in front of the students is an humbling experience and yet another learning curve! I actually look forward to the classes as this will also give me the opportunity to connect with the students and to hopefully inspire them to be future entrepreneurs and leaders as they inspire me to take on new heights.

What About You?

I hope it has been an awesome beginning for you! If you’re on the look out for a start-out point, here are 3 simple ways you can create your own beginnings!

#1: Position Yourself for Opportunities!

They often say “be at the right place at the right time”. Easier said than done, but you can always position yourself in situations that opportunities can come. It may be taking on a leadership role, participating in networking sessions, attending conferences, taking up new responsibilities or even standing in for your colleague at work – opportunities often come in ways we don’t expect it to. The trick is to POSITION ourselves to run into those opportunities.

#2: Talk Opportunities!

Do you have something that you’re absolutely passionate about? Whether it is keeping up with the latest technology updates or getting a promotion at work, you need to talk about it. Not just talk, but talk to the right people – the more the merrier. Make yourself available to these opportunities. Some people create blogs so that they can talk and share about their passion and blogs are a powerful way to express yourself and get noticed… even by your boss!

#3: Push Your Limits!

I’m sure there are times where you simply feel powerless or already at your limit. Your creative juices stopped flowing and you’re stagnant at where you’re at. At times like these comes BIG opportunity! Instead of focusing on your limitations, identify what exactly is putting a cap on your limits and work towards removing them! When this happens, new opportunities are opened to you and you’re ready for greater heights!

Moving Forward

Opportunities come and go and it is often up to us on how we make the most out of them. For those of you that are celebrating the Lunar New Year, this site is now in red in conjunction with this joyous celebration!

May 2011 be filled with great opportunities, good health and endless blessings!

How to: Create a Winning Strategy!

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how to create a winning strategy

One common mistake marketing leaders, entrepreneurs and business owners make is to consistently look for winning strategies outside of your own four walls. True, there are times where ‘thinking outside of the box / walls’ comes in handy but often than not, there is a high possibility that you already HAVE that winning touch and you just do not realize it.

The question to ask yourself is really just this: What is your unique selling proposition? By answering this question truthfully, chances are, that is the key to outperform your competitors – simply by leveraging on the resources, skills, knowledge, tools, systems and talents you ALREADY have!

#1: Identify your strengths first before strategizing

Look inwards – put on paper what you do best. What makes you stand out – Is it customer service? Or a unique product? What talents or resources do you have at hand – Web designers? Programmers? Sales teams?

Once you have these down, work on a strategy that leverage on your strengths. Use them wisely and you may have already won half the battle!

#2: Look at your competitors’ strengths

Look outwards – see what your competitors do best. It is crucial that you acknowledge their strengths and identify how are they different from you so that you can have a strategy that stands out in the industry, and that they cannot copy (at least not that easy).

#3: Make provision for GROWTH

Many people strategize for the now. You need to have a strategy for the tomorrow. Have a strategy that lasts and is able to adapt to changes – simply because things change – especially when it comes to technology. You may have the world’s most advanced software to manage a storefront but your competitors may have an improved version the year after. It happens.

Here’s to greater victories in 2011!

Still Waiting For Success?

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Happy Monday! We are already in 2011 – are you in it full swing yet? Or are you still waiting to commit to your plans, strategies and success? Wait no longer!

The later you start on your plans, the higher the slope you’ll have to climb as you’ll be racing against time, success stories of other people and greater ideals. Why not create your own success story for a change? This image I found really says it all:

wait no longer

What is YOUR Success Plan?

May it be taking up courses, setting goals, attending conferences – the secret is really to just go out there and make it happen!

“Don’t wait for success, go make it happen!“

The 2011 Challenge

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BLESSED NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

How did you spend your new year’s day? Have you got all your resolutions on paper yet?

I don’t know about you but it would seem that humans in general, are procrastinators. We tend to leave everything to the very last minute and will only work when we are forced to do so. Such is seen in education – at school, we were forced to study whether we liked it or not but after we graduate, we no longer are forced to study, no longer forced to improve ourselves.

What does this have to do with 2011?

The keyword here is to CHALLENGE yourself. You only stop moving forward when you stop challenging yourself. Set higher goals and do not get stuck in the comfort zone. CHALLENGE to remain motivated. CHALLENGE to achieve greater success. CHALLENGE to stay ahead of the game.

Let 2011 begin by saying “I choose to challenge myself”.

If you’re wondering how the new year celebration was like in Malaysia, here’s a video I found on YouTube:

Have an awesome 2011 ahead! CHALLENGE – that’s my theme of the year. Will that be yours, too?

Branding.. A Dilemma in Malaysian Small Businesses

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branding among malaysian SMEsBranding is often talked about in both big and small businesses globally. Small businesses in Malaysia (also known as Small Medium Enterprises) are also often in the quest of ‘branding’. However, many of them fail to realize what branding is all about. They think that…

#1: Branding is Advertising

I would say that 95% of the time when I talk to clients in the very first meeting, clients would automatically talk about designing brochures, buntings, banners, newspaper advertisements, billboards, commercials and etc. If only branding is THAT easy…

Advertising is just one of the many tools for a branding process. So are your corporate identity, corporate trainings, team building activities, public relations, social media and events.. they are branding tools to create a brand perception among your target audience, for them to get to know you better in the most relevant method.

#2: Branding Requires A Huge Budget

Having said that, many will begin to think branding is out of their pocket’s league – and that isn’t true. The only budget a business should have is time. Branding takes time and is scalable to your monetary budget. In most situations, branding starts internally, within your own business – your directors, managers, employees, everyone.

branding inwards THEN outwards!

How so? If these people do not believe in your brand, you’ll have a hard time convincing your target audience to believe in you. Always examine inwards before going out there! Consumers are getting smarter these days and you definitely do not want to be seen as an empty brand.

“Ever seen a giant billboard by the highway and you went “that product isn’t any good” or “their customer service is lousy”? Start inwards!“

#3: Branding = Sales

This is perhaps what frustrates me the most – businesses tend to think that the minute they step into the branding process, sales will roll in like never before. If that is your purpose in branding, you’re heading the wrong direction. It takes time.. and for some, LOTS of time.

Why? Simple. One of our client in a retail business have been wanting to have a place in various major shopping malls in Malaysia and they couldn’t – their existing brand image does not meet the requirements of these locations. What we did immediately was to create a fresh brand image for them.. from scratch!

sales vs branding

We went through the motion of brainstorming, creating a new theme / concept, logo, training sessions and the likes and yes, it took a couple of months to get everything in place as they do not have any proper organization (i.e. management) as yet.

As you could’ve guessed, they gave up half way through with the reason of – there was no increase in sales. They see all they’ve spent as a liability instead of an investment – an asset to their business for expansion. Strange, but true. There are many out there that still think branding is the magic word to sales but unfortunately, it does not work that way in reality.

If Only Branding Is THAT Easy..

What is your take on branding? Have you came across brands you thought that they were ’empty’? How do you define ‘successful branding’?

Do share you thoughts here! :)

How to: Change Your Habit before 2011

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goodbye 2010!

It’s the last Monday of 2010! How are you feeling today?

I’m sure tons have happened in your life throughout the entire year and you may have come across habits that you wanted to get rid of but failed to do so. Whether it is spending too much time playing Facebook games, struggling to spend some time daily to invest in yourself or even to read a single book, 2011 is definitely a good year to get those behind you!

Habits

If you’re a driver, you should be able to relate to this occurrence at one point or another. Many times I’ve noted in amazement that even when I’m distracted (on the phone / listening to the radio / etc), I’ve always arrived at my destination while driving on a frequented route without realizing it.

It’s interesting to see how the brain takes complete control of where you are going without any conscious effort, provided it’s a regular route and interestingly, if you can truly understand the how this works, you will end up having the answer to creating a new habit for 2011.

The reason why it happens is because your mind follows instructions, without any conscious effort, that have been repeated over and over to it. This phenomenon can be summed up in one word – Habit. It’s the power of a habit that is at work here.

How Does Knowing This Help?

We know that repetition does the trick to form habits. The first step is to always acknowledge the habit. Identify it’s patterns and then try to break the routine. Taking the same example, imagine if I would to have placed a piece of paper in front of my dashboard daily with the writings: “Use Road B”, chances are, I’ll be able to make a conscious effort to take Road B instead of the usual A and in time to come, Road B will become the new habit.

Having that said, it applies to every other habits in life. All you need to do is to break that habit by changing it’s course. You need to constantly ‘remind’ yourself of that course you wish to take. Use something to remind you – a desktop wallpaper, a wristband, anything that you can look at it and remember your course.

Are you missing 2010 already? 2011 is going to be a new year, a new course, and new victories!

How to: Integrate Social Media in Business Using Blogs (Part 3)

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So you now have a blog up and running and you’re working on your posts consistently, great! The common question I face during meetups with clients is: “Is that enough?”.

Is it?

It depends. It depends on how far you want to take your company / brand. If you’re comfortable having that limited number of readers or if you have no problem with a slow and steady organic growth of readership, then yes, it is enough.

However in most cases, companies and businesses would want to see results fast. They want to build a huge readership base within the shortest amount of time possible. Some make it, some don’t. Why? It takes a little more than just commitment and consistency to make it happen.

Here are 3 tips on how businesses can build readership:

#1: Guest Posting

guest posting for extended exposureThis is pretty straight forward. Just like how your business is looking for opportunities to be featured on newspaper / magazine columns, you can write guest posts on other people’s blogs! All you need to do is to be on a lookout for opportunities to guest post – contact the site / blog owner to see if you can do so.

Remember to offer something in return such as an offer for them to write a guest post on your site, or to do a special feature about them or by linking them up. After all, it is a mutual benefit. Look for sites / blogs that relates to your industry so that your brand image is consistent. You may also want to wait till you have  a healthy amount of posts on your site before approaching others as they too, will want to know of your expertise :)

#2: Commenting

contribute through comments. do not spam!Just like guest posting, commenting on other writer’s posts can bring about great exposure to your business. How so? When you leave constructive comments and / or share ideas, you’re actually engaging with the author and fellow peers. This means that you will be recognized and when that happens, chances are, they too will drop by and visit your site as you leave your link.

Now be careful to not go on a commenting spree and leave links all over the blogosphere as that is equivalent to spam and that will work in reverse for you. Instead, look for sites that you can contribute ideas and learn from and get started on a healthy discussion – that will work much better as you position yourself in the industry on blogs.

#3: Submit / Syndicate Your Posts

building your network on social media

One good way of getting more readers is to leave as many trails of your post as possible on the web. It can be on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, Reddit, Digg and the list never ends! Fortunately with the abundance of tools out there, you can get your posts in multiple places in one go such as Google’s Feedburner or if you’re using the Chrome browser, the Shareaholic extension makes things really simple, too!

Suggested read: I found this timely article here that suggests some of today’s growing tools you can submit your posts to to grow your readership network.

Is there more?

There sure is but the above 3 should be able to get things going pretty well for a start especially if you’re new to the blogging scene. Focus on growing your networks through engagement and do not worry about other techniques for now, you’ll definitely get there soon enough!

Do you have tips to share? I would love to hear what works / doesn’t work for you, too! :)