Hi All,
Hope you are well and enjoying the wonderful British summer. Well it is the last Monday of the month and you all know what happens on the last Monday of each month...Top tips a la Ang! Sorry this edition is later than usual – pretty busy July but I wanted to make sure you get this as promised on the last Monday of the month.
I know you have all been waiting for this month’s email with baited breath (a girl can dream can’t she?) so here goes – I hope you like and as usual if there are any areas you want me to investigate for you do let me know!
Tips to help you become productive, reduce costs and get more CUSTOMERS!!!!
In no particular order, these tips I hope will help you achieve the above and they have ALL been test driven by myself (the things I do for you...) - Seriously I employ all the tips listed regularly, bar the digital pen which I trialled at an exhibition recently got hooked and have since ordered for me and the rest of the team!
1. The Digital Pen
As I mentioned above, I attended a gadget expo recently and one of the products I trialled which completely blew me away was the E-Pen. You can find out more about it at www.e-pens.com/mobile_notes.htm. If like me you are constantly making notes at sales meetings, client service meetings, seminars etc then this little gadget is truly a godsend. It basically acts like a normal pen (complete with ink) and you write on normal paper – no digital tablet or anything. What I like best is you don’t even have to write in a special way – just write normally and the e-pen will recognise the text! Amazing! I have lost count of how many times I have returned from a meeting and have tried to decipher my own handwriting and have struggled to do so (yes my handwriting is really that bad) but the e-pen can! And it works with MS Office too! It recognises drawings too so brill for architects, engineers and marketers!
2. Get to the top of Google FREE
This is great. Forget Adwords, Forget website optimisation (for now...we will talk about this later), you can get to the top of Google simply be featuring on an index – FREE. I highly recommend http://www.freeindex.co.uk/. Simply register your business, add a few blurb about the business, attach some images, get a few testimonials and you are good to go! In the last month we have received 5 new business enquiries from Free Index. Not bad when you think it is all FREE. And because search engines simply love directories (remember search engines absolutely adore content and these directories are content rich) they will always rank highly. Another good free index is http://www.businessmagnet.co.uk/.
3. Start Tracking
Do you know how many people visited your website today? How about last week? How about last month? If you do not know how many people are visiting your website then you are missing out on a trick - a big one! In the UK we still do not get how powerful the internet is in terms of generating new business. Businesses still see their website as just a postcard where people can get information from. Wrong! Your website is your best salesperson – costs little and works 24/7 for your business. Not knowing how many people visit your website is like running a restaurant and not knowing how many covers you do on a daily basis. We use Google’s Web Analytics (give me a call if you want to know more about how this works) which I think is great. You can also get web page counters (there are many free ones out there) not as in depth as Analytics but at least they give you some insight as to how well your page is working. Just in case you are wondering, http://www.supremesystems.co.uk/ had 8 unique visitors to our site today, 27 last week and 101 visitors for the month of June! J
4. Give something away FREE
So you know how many people visit your site but do you know who they all are? Do you know what they are looking for? If the visitors to your site don’t actually complete the Contact Us form or actually call you then you will never know who they are – another lost sale L. So give them something for FREE..in exchange for their contact details for you to follow up with. Most people will gladly give their details in exchange for “valuable information” (the onus is on “valuable”). Check out our website at http://www.supremesystems.co.uk/ on Friday. We are trialling out our new giveaway (a search engine optimisation ebook) you may like it...sign up and get a copy!
5. The Cute PDF Writer
Another one of my “can’t do without” software – Introducing the CutePDF Writer. Easily converts any document into PDF easily. http://www.cutepdf.com/. I use the free version so don’t bother buying the “paid for” version.
6. Go Green – Save the planet and Save Money
Going Green is all the rage at the moment and I always try my darnedest to ensure that in everything I do I take the environment into consideration (I am not a saint mind..I do have my bad days...). There are many ways you can help the environment but one of the gadgets we use at Supreme is GreenPrint – it ensures you only print the pages you need (It does not print any blank pages etc). If you print a lot of paper this can save you money – paper, cartridges etc. Check it out at http://www.printgreener.com/
7. Get a Word ADD IN
We did this recently for one of our clients and I think it may be useful for some of you. An ADD IN is a small software built to work alongside an application (in this case Word) and helps to reduce the time spent generating documents (quotes, invoices, contracts, letters etc). Now the ADD IN we developed was on behalf of a company that generated health and safety reports on behalf of businesses. The ADD IN simply enters pre-populated information to an existing document from a database or preconfigured abbreviations. So enter ADDR1 and the ADD IN understands that it needs to include Your company address details and ADDR2 tells it to enter your clients address details. Right click and you can select from a list of preconfigured text to include within the document - in this case the client could pick from a list of recommendations to proffer to your client and this at the same time customises the entire document to reflect this solution. Hey putting pen to paper does not really do this software justice – you have to see it in operation. You will be blown away. I have one...which I use for all the quotes and contracts I send out, and it reduces the amount of errors you may make on such crucial documents....what do you mean “you didn’t know we could design software”? J
8. Get Flash Spring
Another “can’t do without” software is Flash Spring Pro – it helps convert ordinary PowerPoint presentations to brilliant Flash presentations. Check it out at http://www.ispringsolutions.com/. Best of all there is a FREE version which is very good indeed!
9. Kick off a referral programme
You know the old saying.. ”if you don’t ask you don’t get”. So get asking. Go through your database and send an email asking for just 1 referral. Give something back in return. You will be amazed at just how many responses you get back especially if you have a good relationship with your clients. Another tip..make it formal. Send a nice email, with logos etc, an image of the “thank you present” (a nice bottle of expensive wine always does the trick I find) include a form were they can enter the details of the contact and voila! Use Google to create your forms - go to http://www.google.com/ – look under more and then documents (I promise I am not on a retainer from Google) or another trusted friend Aweber - http://www.aweber.com/. While we are at it...got any referrals for moi? J
10. Go Paperless
Scan Everything! Seriously. Why still keep paper? I scan every single document I get in and recycle the paper. The government bodies will now accept scanned copies (for VAT, Tax, PAYE purposes) so why do small businesses still hold so much paper – And it is easier to find documents too especially if you have an intranet system like ours (enter document name within search section or document type, press enter and the magic of technology brings the document to you without you ever having to leave your desk). I understand there are situations where nothing but paper will do and you do have to keep some paper documents but not all...surely! Those files of bills you still keep is a great place to start!
So, there you have it, my 10 tips for you to get your teeth into - as usual any questions do let me know.
Until next time!
Regards,
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