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Time for Holiday Retail Marketing Strategies

Category: Growth Hacks

Time for Holiday Retail Marketing Strategies

Time for Holiday Retail Marketing Strategies

The busiest time of the year is back for businesses. Holiday season is expected to retain its past momentum and will likely record bumper sales level again. But, are you and your business prepared to use their opportunity in the best possible manner. While it is advisable to hash out your holiday retail marketing strategies well in advance, but it is not too late. Here are some of the pointers which can help you fine tune your holiday retail marketing strategy.

  • Get a Head Start: you can get an advantage over your competition by starting early. Holiday season entails big crowd so you need to be prepared to handle them. If you are running an online business, you need to ensure that your servers are all set to accommodate incoming traffic. If you do not plan early, your website may break down under the pressure of traffic volume. Apart from this, you also need to plan for proper inventory. This is important for both online as well as offline businesses. While it is not advisable to tie up funds in excessive inventory, but running out of good while there is demand for them can cause even bigger loss to your business.
  • Remain on Your Toes: you may plan early and go for perfect execution, but there will always be circumstances which will require you to go back to drawing board. So, it is important that you keep your strategy simple and flexible as you may be required to change it on a moment’s notice. For online businesses, server outage may be a big issue. You should be prepared to handle any such malfunctioning as and when it arises. Further, there may be unexpectedly higher demand for some products. In such cases, your business should be ready to handle such high volume.
  • Know your Market: in order to design effective marketing strategy, it is important to know all the nuances of your market. Even within your target market, you should be aware of different sub-segments and tailor fit your marketing strategies as per their requirements. For example, while designing your holiday marketing strategy, you may want to ensure that you retain your repeat customers while also making sure that you are able to attract the new ones. Overall, your marketing strategy should account for each sub-segment of your target population.
  • Make it Festive: while it is a serious business, the holiday season is about festivity as well. Be sure that you generate that holiday buzz and give celebratory makeover to your business strategy. For this purpose, you can start with marketing material such as pamphlets and emails. It is imperative that your marketing items are able to create that festivity buzz. You can also tease out the customers by providing them a sneak preview of the goods offered and discounts provided. Design your campaign in such a manner that it highlights a timeline leading up to the holidays in a creative and intriguing manner.
  • Go Mobile: as more and more people are now accessing the web through phones or tablets, it is important to ensure that your marketing strategy is customized for mobile experience. Start with your marketing material to ensure that your promotional emails and advertisements are displayed properly on smaller screens of mobile devices. Optimize your website to load faster on even slower mobile connections. Better still, you can simply go for designing a dedicated app for your mobile clients. Whatever you plan to do, but make sure that you pay due attention to people using mobile phones and devices.
  • Pre Test: it is highly important to go for a pre test run, so as to figure out potential glitches. You can try out different approaches to find the best one and then deploy the selected ones to ensure the best results. You can also tweak your other strategies in response to the results of pre test run. It will also give you a chance to test your discount codes to avoid any last minute issues.

Holiday season may prove to be the best marketing season for your business, provide you carry out proactive strategy and prepare yourself beforehand.

Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live

Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live

Cyber security is an extremely important concept in today’s interconnected world. The significance of this phenomenon has been recognized through the fact that organizations now carry out formal educational seminars to make its employees aware of dangers in the cyber world and the ways to tackle them. There are certain ways you can ensure the safety of your business and data from cyber frauds.

  1. Create Awareness: the first step in ensuring the cyber security is to make all the users aware of cyber attacks, their consequences and the ways to avert them. Many times, employees believe that cyber security is the responsibility of IT department. However, this is not true as most of the cyber threats mainly arise due to certain actions taken by employees outside the IT department. It is important to empower your employees to ensure that they carry out best practices. This exercise should be undertaken by businesses of all sizes and sectors. With elevated awareness, your staff can become a major force in averting cyber attacks.
  2. Use Technology: since cyber threats have become more prevalent due to advancement and proliferation of technology, it is only sensible that the same technological tools are used to fight against it. First step in this direction is to institute Two Factor Authentication system which is also known as 2FA, to access enterprise resources. The first factor is generally the password generated by the user while second factor is delivered through electronic means such as text message or email. In certain cases, you may choose to use biometrics as second measures. Such biometrics may take form of finger print or retina scanning.
  3. Healthy Online Habits: in order to ensure that your employees are following the guidelines, it may be important to set up certain filters. These web filtering tools may restrict access to specific websites or URLs. Further, these filters may also help in managing the links opened by the employees. However, the first step in this direction should be to educate the employees about safe practices. They should be counseled to not click on unknown links sent through emails or texts. The employees should be advised to limit their web surfing to safe sites only as many dodgy websites are known to implant virus on computers which may sabotage the entire corporate network.
  4. Make Passwords Stronger: employees should be educated about the importance of stronger passwords. The passwords are required to be not just long but also complex to provide appropriate kind of security. Ideally, it should be a combination of letters, numbers and special symbols. Further, the passwords must also be changed frequently. Employees should be advised not to share their password with anyone within or without the organization. It should also be noted that unique passwords should be created for different services and not repeated.
  5. Install Updates: in cyber world, threats arise on daily basis. In order to provide protection against them, most of the apps and websites push constant updates. It is highly important that all such updates including security patches should be installed on regular basis. Keeping the apps and programs updated ensures that you have reasonable security against various cyber threats. Proper attention should also be paid to updating default privacy settings. All the devices and accounts used in a firm should undergo this exercise.
  6. Make Cyber Security Practices a Habit: while organizations may institute various policies to ensure cyber security, it is equally important to ensure that these policies are followed by the employees in a prompt and regular manner. Employees should be aware that they do not leave sensitive information lying around. Further, this type of information should be shared with only concerned people and not everyone else. Organizations should carry out periodic checks to see that the policies are being implemented. The employees should also be educated about such practices on regular basis.

As most of the businesses now have online presence, it is important to ensure that your business as well as your clients are secure against online threats. By following some simple rules, you can have a blanket of safety against cyber attacks and keep your data safe from such threats.

Subscription Economy: Business Impact of Rapidly Changing Consumer Needs

Subscription Economy: Business Impact of Rapidly Changing Consumer Needs

Technology has changed the way businesses are conducted. This is primarily due to change in consumer needs and perceptions. Technology has brought newer avenues to the customers and has offered them more choices. One of the most disruptive innovations facilitated by technology is the proliferation of subscription economy. This mode has changed the way consumers pay for different products and services. It also means that the businesses are now able to better handle their cash inflows and improve their liquidity.

What is Subscription Economy

In simple words, it may be defined as the practice of businesses to offer subscription to their customers. This implies that instead of charging a lump sum amount to the customers, the goods or services are provided in lieu of periodic payments. Such periodic payments are called subscription and the model is known as subscription services model. Currently, many companies are moving away from traditional model towards subscription economy due to change in consumer taste and needs.

Under this business model, the consumer is willing to use the goods or services on periodical basis instead of making a one-time commitment. While the payments under this model are expected to be made regularly, the plans may be customized to best meet the individual requirements of the consumers. However, it should be noted that the model has proved to be so successful that it has not only been implemented in B2C segment, but also in B2B sector. It is likely that by 2023, 75 percent of the companies dealing in direct selling will adopt subscription model for their clients.

Subscription economy may have different meanings for different businesses as firms may choose to implement their own versions to suit their requirements and resources. The main types of subscription economy models are a) Pay as you Go, b) Curation model c) Replenishment model and d) Access model. Pay as your Go model is simple and hence highly popular. Under this model, the consumer is charged for periodic delivery of goods and services. Since it takes away the worry to remember the need to renew, the model is also known as convenience model.

Curation model is mainly used by the businesses which provide personalized goods or services instead of the mass ones. This model allows the consumers to discover new products by sampling them, instead of committing to them in the first go. Such subscription boxes are especially popular in food and beauty segment. Replenishment model, on the other hand, is more suitable for goods and services related to regular, day to day life. With such subscription model, the customer can automate the delivery of their consumables. Access based model offers need based access to goods and services on payment of periodical fee.

Impact on Business

Subscription economy has impacted the businesses in a prominent manner. Subscription model implies that businesses are now required to remain in constant touch with their clients since one time interaction is now converted into periodic interactions. The businesses are now required to be more savvy with their customers as every interaction with them forms the foundation for the next one. It is also more important now to keep the customers engaged and interested in your products as they may choose to switch their loyalty if there is any slack in the services. While this factor can keep the businesses on their toes, it also provides them the opportunity to innovate and grow.

With subscription model, the firms can make their cash flow more predictable, allowing them to better manage their liquidity and funds. The higher predictability of the cash inflows let the firms undertake better planning for their future endeavors. Subscription economy also helps the firms by reducing their customer acquisition costs. Further, the firms can also personalize or customize their marketing strategies to best suit their client base. The model is helpful for the clients as well since they are not forced to make lump sum payments.

Conclusion

Subscription model is here to stay and for the ultimate success of this model, it is important for businesses to have a robust and reliable payment processing system. Such system should be able to handle frequent payments in an efficient manner. With such payment systems, the firms can boost their sales and client base.

5 Ways Startups Can Drive Massive Organic Growth

5 Ways Startups Can Drive Massive Organic Growth

Achieving organic growth is one of the most important targets for any startup organization. This target can prove to be a tricky one as startup organizations may have to compete with bigger players in the industry, without similar resources.  However, this should not be a cause of despair as there are multiple ways in which an organization can drive robust organic growth with minimal resources at their disposal. Here are some of the tips which may aid your business to achieve its full potential.

Understand the Concept: In order to attain your goal of strong organic growth, first of all, you need to be clear about the scope of this concept. Organic growth is the growth which is achieved by harnessing the internal resources of the firm. Such resources may range from better marketing practices to responsive customer care facilities. Organic growth may be directly contrasted by the growth achieved through acquisitions and mergers. Due to this reason, it is a little trickier and more time consuming to accomplish high organic growth and it requires a specific strategy.

Remain Aware of Emerging Trends: You may be competing against firms that are armed with lots of cash and resources, but this fact should not hinder your growth plans. While bigger businesses have the advantage of possessing established customer base, startups have the distinct freedom to design innovative strategies. You can use the latest technologies for designing sales plans to ensure that they best meet your requirements and resource constraints.

Think Long Term: As risky as a startup can be, it is not a speculative activity. You should have a long term vision for your endeavor and this long term vision should be a guide for setting up the strategy for driving organic growth. The emphasis on a longer horizon will allow you to look past immediate gains. It will also stop you from taking short cuts which may provide immediate gains but may hamper long term sustainability. For a startup, it would make sense to invest in strategies which are designed for the long term.

Take Personal Interest: Giving a personal touch to your organic growth strategies may work wonders as this approach may help you in designing unique plans. When your interest in achieving organic growth goes beyond mere commercial gains, you are in the position to take alternative approaches. It will also allow you to give personal branding to your plans. Taking personal interest in the execution of these strategies will also increase the likelihood of these plans succeeding.

Build a Core Team: The achievement of explosive organic growth rate is a team effort. No one person can attain this goal on their own. In order to ensure that your plans are executed in the best possible manner, you should build a team consisting of people with common vision and goals. These people will bring different expertise to the table which will allow you to take a more holistic approach towards the design of the strategy. The operations of a startup require more commitment, so make sure that your team members are on the same page.

Set Tangible Goals: Setting up tangible goals has several benefits. First, it will force you to think through plans. It will also aid in the quantification of the goals, which is a prerequisite for setting up concrete plans. Merely saying that you want to achieve high organic growth rate is not helpful. For proper strategies, you need to specify the rate of growth you want to attain. The plans required for 10% growth are drastically different from the plans required for achieving 50 percent organic growth rate. So, set up the goals in concrete and quantitative terms.

Review and Improve: The plans for achieving organic growth rate are not set in stone. You should periodically review your plans to ensure that they remain on the right path. After critical evaluation of the strategies, appropriate changes should also be brought about in a prompt manner.

Achieving organic growth is vital for a startup. While there is no one size that fits all plans for attaining high organic growth rate, the above pointers may come in handy.

Achieving 2019 Holiday Success

Shipping, Packaging, and Fulfillment Guidelines for E-commerce Brands

Achieving 2019 Holiday Success

Holiday season is an important time segment for any business and e-commerce businesses are no exception. While holiday season means high demand for products and services, it also means shorter turnaround time, pressure on logistics facilities and time crunch. In order to survive holiday season and prosper without breaking a sweat, it is vital that businesses prepare themselves well in advance for the potential issue. Luckily, it is fairly simple to draw up some strategies to cope well with the holiday season rush. Here are some of the tips to get you prepared.

Start Early and Plan Well: The key to perform well during the holiday season is to start planning as soon as possible. You can start by reviewing your previous year holiday season performance. Such review will allow you to identify the bottlenecks and issues you faced previously. Consequently, you can make allowance for such issues and look for ways to resolve them. You can also take forward looking approach where you try to anticipate the likely issue you may have to encounter in the current season. Ideally, you should combine both the approaches to identify the maximum number of issues in advance and try to resolve them.

Pay Attention to Back End and Front End: while it may seem obvious to pay attention to front end and provide attractive website layout to your customers, it is equally important to be diligent about the backend as well. Front end preparations may include giving festive makeover to your website, offering discounts, offering convenient product discovery and hassle free checkout. However, all these facilities may be in vain if your backend is not designed to withstand the pressure. On the backend, you need to ensure that your logistic collaborations are well in place and are scaled properly. You should also pay attention to packing the material appropriately so that your customers receive the goods in proper condition. During the festive season, customers may require their items in the least possible time, so be prepared to beat the rush.

Stock up for Fulfillment Nirvana: smooth fulfillment is an important facet of your holiday season sales strategy. Fulfillment encompasses a large number of activities including packaging, shipping, tracking and ultimately delivering the goods. It is absolutely important that the orders are processed in correct manner i.e. the right type of goods go to the right address. The packing of the items should also be done appropriately to preserve their quality and integrity. Also make sure that you are able to deliver the items on time, despite the holiday rush. For all these things, you need to have enough items in your stock all the time. If you think your in house capacity may not be able to handle the pressure, you may think about outsourcing a part or all of your fulfillment requirements. Outsourcing may seem expensive but may recoup its costs through enhanced goodwill and customer satisfaction.

Take Holistic Approach: beating the holiday rush will require you to take holistic approach. You should be able to view the strategy as a whole. Starting with your website, make sure that you provide enough bandwidth to withstand the pressure on server. The customers are likely to abandon their shopping if your website is not able to load quickly or the checkout process is not smooth. Also, you should keep your discount and promotional strategies simple. It will not only keep the customers enticed but will also reduce pressure on your resources. Simpler the policies, faster and more efficient will be the execution process. While you prepare for ensuring the timely delivery of goods, you should also be prepared for consequent returns. Keep your return policies simple and clear to avoid bottlenecks. While liberal return policies may help you in boosting your sales, you should also properly monitor the returns to ensure that there are no frauds involved.

You should be able to glide through your holiday season if you have prepared in advance. However, even the best formed strategies are tested during these times, so you should always provide for contingencies to happen. You may encounter pleasant yet testing situations such as stock outs on account of bumper demand, so be prepared for such exigencies.