Martin Koss – thinking out loud…
I don't mean to be so opinionated and argumentative, it's just me…
Fish n Chips Twice Please
To earn high praise and a solid reputation for your business you have to have more than a decent product or service at a fair price. You’ve got to be consistent Continue reading
Big Changes for Small Business
Many small business owners and managers don’t appreciate that they have a wonderful advantage over big companies. Year after year they struggle on by with the same Continue reading
Profiting from Atrocities
It’s not the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last time we see businesses profiting from atrocities like bombings and natural disasters. But, in my opinion Continue reading
What Are You Really Saying?
Potential customer walks into the showroom, sales person pounces “how can I help You” he says. A little shell shocked, customer replies “I’m just looking, thank you”. “What are you looking at today? Continue reading
Let Me Shop On My Terms, Please
I don’t know about you but, when I shop online I want to feel like I am in control. I like to have a choice about what personal details I share and I do not like it when the website stores more of my details than I want them to store – especially credit card details.
After speaking to friend yesterday about a product, I got a solid recommendation and went along to the supplier’s website. I located the product and added them to my ‘shopping cart’. Next step was the checkout… and that is when I started feeling that tinge of discomfort.
Social Networking, Referral Marketing – Nothing New
So many people discuss, write about and ‘train’ others about the concepts of social networking and referal marketing as ‘a whole new way of marketing your business‘.
It’s nothing new, though. Is it?
It may seem, to some, to be a ‘complicated / complex’ time of ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ and ‘fans’ and ‘followers’ and ‘subscribers’ but, in fact, we just live in a modern version of the ‘olden days’ where we recommended businesses to one another across the street and over the garden gate. Continue reading
Facebook Mobile Must Evolve
I often get asked by Facebook Business Page admins why their custom landing page is not visible on mobile devices. Here’s a typical question:
Hi Martin. If you ever come across a system to make custom tabs default landing pages on mobile phones, please, let me know!
Unfortunately, that will only be possible if and when Facebook change what is visible at m.facebook.com – which is what mobile devices automatically redirect to. Continue reading
You Get What You Pay For – Right?
If it’s true, and most us believe it is, that you “get what you pay for” then why do so many people get excited when they get something for free?
Free, to me at least, means “something of no value”. If it had value, why would it be given away. From a business perspective (it drives me nuts when people seek out free stuff for business use) it would typically be something that few people would be willing to pay for so the ‘thing’ is given away as a loss leader, a teaser, a sneak peak at what you can have if you part with some cash – which is, ultimately, the objective.
I’m not talking about a free glow in the dark sticker you might get in a box of Cornflakes, I’m talking about free business stuff like free directory listings, free advertising, free software trials, free upgrades, free downloads, free reports, free white papers, blah blah blah… Continue reading
What Do You Do To Be Remarkable?
So much of the advertising and marketing we see is just plain boring. What are you doing that gets attention?
What I find so amazing when I see all the junk mail that drops on the welcome mat is that along the way there will have been input by marketing people, advertising agencies, executive decisions (cough cough), management meetings (choke) and a heck of a lot of wasted time and money.
Obviously the ad agencies, the marketing ‘experts’ want (I mean ‘need’) the business and will do all they can to convince the business owner that this campaign will easily pull in full figure percentages of responses – even though they know that only in dream land will they get above the 0.01% mark. Continue reading
Every Business Has a Bad Day
Business is not and never will be 100% plain sailing; anyone who told you otherwise is full of crap. Oh, you read it in a book did you? Ah ha. Okay – put down the ‘Easy Steps To Starting And Running A Successful Business‘ and join the real world…
Business is not now and never will be 100% plain sailing!
We all want praise and dread the onslaught from an unhappy customer and the potential backlash in the social channels, but, no matter how much we strive for perfection, we drop the ball – occasionally.
The difference between businesses though, is some have mastered the art of the cover-up and some have the balls to admit to their mistakes. True colours are shown by the company that accepts the occasional cock-up and demonstrates, often openly and publicly, how ‘it’ has put their house in order and become better.
Recently I started paying attention to some highly rated iPad apps and the feedback comments on iTunes. It turns out there are many developers who are more than happy to allow negative feedback to be published – so they can follow-up with revisions, updates and corrective improvements. Continue reading →