The study found that UK households would spend more on gifts than those in other European countries, spending an average of £437 per household. They would also spend £184 on food and drink, £41 on travel and £20 on decorations, taking their total seasonal budget to £682.

Some £174, 25.5% of that total spend, predicted the study, carried out for Kelkoo by the Centre for Retail Research, would be spent over the internet. That means UK shoppers will spend £13.43bn online in total, 16.3%, or £1.88bn, more than at the same time last year, if the forecasts are correct. Some 33.7% of that online spending will be on gifts, the survey predicted, with 24.5% on Christmas travel, 20.6% on decorations and 6.7% on food and drink. Offline sales are expected to fall by 2.1% to £55.66bn.

Of that online spend, some 12%, or £1.64bn, is expected to be through a mobile phone. UK smartphone owners are expected to spend 45% of the £3.68bn likely to be spent via mobile phone across the whole of Europe.

Chris Simpson, chief marketing officer at Kelkoo, said: “In spite of public spending cuts across the UK and the rest of Europe, the research suggests that overall household budgets will grow by 1% this Christmas in the UK compared to last year and online spending will continue to thrive, playing a key role in propping up overall retail growth.

“In particular, we were interested to see that this year, shopping on mobile phones is set to increase significantly, opening up more opportunities for retailers to sell any place, any time. Our advice to retailers that are not geared up for mobile shoppers is to make sure they invest as soon as possible, otherwise they will miss out on a very lucrative shopping platform which is expected to account for more than one in ten online purchases this Christmas.”

But with large sums expected to be spent online this Christmas, cloud computing company Rackspace has issued a warning that more than a third of consumers will abandon online shopping carts and retail apps that take more than 10 seconds to load.

Fabio Torlini, VP of cloud at Rackspace, said: “Our study shows that 90 per cent of the UK adults we surveyed plan to buy at least some of their Christmas presents online, but over a third of busy shoppers will be gone in 10 seconds if they have to wait for websites or apps to load. This means that retailers need to prepare their web-based store fronts for surges in demand by having the right cloud hosting service in place – especially if they offer discounts and other deals, which may instantly attract masses of bargain-hungry online shoppers.”

Meanwhile, Rackspace’s survey suggests that the UK’s seasonal shoppers will spend £158 on average, bringing the total online spend to £6.85bn this Christmas. Some 53% said they would start their shopping in November.

It also found 23% would buy presents online using a smartphone or tablet. That’s 6%, or 2.9m people, more than last year. In addition, one in five (18%) of shoppers say they will use their smartphone in store to scan product barcodes to compare prices online before buying.

Online shopper, Barry Craig, a 25 year-old creative marketer for production studio Taylor James, sai: “On average I spend 80 to 90 hours per week browsing and shopping online using my PC, smartphone and iPad. I work long hours and any shopping I do must fit around work, so I’d have to abandon a frozen website after five seconds. I grab group buying deals to save money, and use online voucher deals and QR codes often as they make the online process easier. This is really important at Christmas time when I’m spending a lot but shopping in-store is anything but pleasurable.”

Article Source -

http://www.internetretailing.net/2011/11/more-than-a-quarter-of-uk-christmas-shopping-will-be-online-in-2011-study/

What message, or statement, do you make crystal clear in all of your marketing materials and paid advertisements?

What does your business’ marketing plan want those that view your marketing to do? Where does your sales funnel begin? The reason I ask is because I have noticed over, and over again, that many businesses have very confusing, and disorganized, marketing messages that they are sending out each and every day. Think of your marketing materials as a giant jigsaw puzzle, that make up a larger solidified marketing message image. Each element of your marketing should fit together to make that marketing message very clear, and the expectations to your target market should also be clearly understandable in each piece. However, if your marketing materials are reflecting different messages, and various expectations, then you are complicating and confusing your customers which has a negative impact on sales.

It has been proven in various studies that marketing that is confusing, or non-consistent, can actually HURT a business’ profits.

How does your marketing rank in this regard?

A CSI survey revealed that companies that have clear and focused marketing experienced the following:

1) Discounted products 1/5th as often
2) Had win rates 20% higher than average
3) Had 25% higher quota achievement rates
4) Close THREE times as many deals

How would results like these impact your business’ profits?

If you have not done so yet, then it is time you clearly laid out a marketing plan that identifies exactly what message you want all your staff, customers, and marketing material to reflect.

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? Just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!

Talk to you soon,

Do you know what the most powerful, and effective, form of advertising is? It’s word-of-mouth advertising!

A customer, or client, that is happy with your service is likely to mention your business to 4 – 10 of their close friends…which translates in to free exposure and traffic for your business’ location. Is there any reason why you wouldn’t want increased hype and excitement surrounding your business? No? Well then, let me also ask, what are you currently doing to increase and drive more word-of-mouth traffic into your business?

Many business owners could easily increase their “natural marketing” by simply implementing a referral system into their businesses. Do you have a referral system setup to encourage and reward your customers for mentioning your business and services to their friends and family? This can be something as simple as a referral “fee” that might be 10% paid to the refferer for recommending someone who makes a purchase. It could be providing discounts, or exclusive memberships, to those that help drive more business to you.

The sky is the limit for creativity, but at the end of the day some sort of system does need to be in place; otherwise many of your customers simply won’t think to mention your business to people they know.

There are three very simple ways to increase the referral traffic to your business:

1) Provide exceptional service, exceed customer expecations, and give amazing customer service. This will naturally cause your customers to tell everyone they know about how amazing their experience with your business was.

2) Ask for the referral business. Contact previous customers via email, or direct-mail, and ask if they know anyone who could benefit from your products and services.

3) Recognize and reward those who do recommend your business, and as a result helped to generate additional sales. This can be in the form of a thank you letter, discounted deals, etc.

Just by implementing this, very simple process into your business, you will see an increase in sales at essentially no additional expense.

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? Just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!

Talk to you soon,

“The fortune is in the follow-up,” and “The money is in the list,” are phrases that can truly be a source of endless profits, or fatal profit leakage for a business. I know I touched on this in my last email to you, but I recently spoke to a business owner about the same topic, and realized that the problem is still very widespread amongst businesses.

So let me be very clear on this: If you properly follow-up with customers, you will see a near INSTANTANEOUS increase in annual profits by 25 – 95%! How much of a difference would an increase of 75% in pure profit make in your current business?

How can I be so confident about this fact?

Because the numbers speak for themselves:

1) Research conducted by Bain & Company found that an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%

2) The same study found that it costs six to seven times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one.

3) According to Bain & Company, “US companies lose 50% of their customers every 5 years.”

4) “Companies that make customer service a high priority see twelve times the return on sales than those companies with a low emphasis on service.” -International Customer Service Association

5) “Two-thirds (or 66%) of customers do not feel valued by those serving them.” – Mark Stevens, Author

Can you see how important it is that you FOLLOW-UP with not only “hot leads,” but also your existing customer base?

When was the last time you sent a message to your existing customers to thank them for their business over the years?

When was the last time you asked your customers what areas of your business THEY felt could be improved or changed?

Just taking the time to do small things to show that you value your customers will GUARANTEE you not only see increased profits, but will also reduce your need to spend MORE on marketing to REPLACE the customers that have decided to take their money elsewhere.

The best part is, there is software and programs that will allow you to do all of this AUTOMATICALLY, so that you don’t have to spend any time sending out each message one-by-one. Take your business’ profits to the next level, and create a system for following-up with your past and present customers before it comes back to hurt you.

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? Just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!

Talk to you soon,

“Time is money,” which is one of the more realistic observations when it comes to the life of a business owner and his team. How much of your time (or your marketing team’s time) is spent dealing with repetitive tasks, or even worse, NOT dealing with repetitive tasks that is in reality hurting your profits. For example, how much of your time is spent answering the same types of questions regarding your products and services, over and over again? On the other side of the coin, how often are you following up with interested prospects, or past customers, regarding upcoming promotions and marketing events?

Time is money…where is your time being spent?

Speaking of spending, are you also spending a lot of money on various marketing resources such as flyers, and newspaper advertisements, to inform your target market about what is going on within your business? If you are using such channels to spread your message, then the following strategy will not only free up more time for your business, but will also put a ton of money in your business’ books at the same time.

The secret? Electronic mail (e-Mail) marketing!

What makes e-Mail such a powerful resource for your business? The fact that you can AUTOMATE a lot of your repetitive, and time consuming, customer-related tasks. Taking into consideration that most of your customer-base checks their email multiple times a day, and the fact that most mobile devices being sold come with the ability to receive instant messages in form of email communication etc., it just makes sense that if your business is not already using e-mail communication in its marketing funnel, that it starts as soon as possible.

So how can you use e-mail marketing to your advantage?

1) You can build a list of interested leads, and prospects, then use specialized software to automatically send pre-made marketing related information to that list at pre-determined scheduled times.

2) You can create a support system, based around your website, that has requests for information responded to automatically, with frequent questions stored in a database to be added later.

3) You can send out important business updates, or upcoming promotions to your list of email addresses, and track who opens those emails and who clicked on the promotional links inside, to measure how effective and appealing your marketing promotions are to your customer base.

This is just the start, as there are dozens of other ideas that will make your business money at practically NO ADDITIONAL EXPENSE! There’s also no concern about “spamming” your customers, as they would have the option to click a link in each email that stops them from getting further emails…so you end up with a list of BUYERS instead of cold leads. Can you see how powerful the results of this would be for your business? Don’t delay, and put email marketing to use asap!

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? dont be shy just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!

Talk to you soon,

If you could slash your current marketing expenses, and increase results + sales using free marketing resources instead… would you?

Chances are you would, I mean…who wouldn’t? The reason I ask is because in talking with various business owners about their current marketing resources, and the results they are getting with them, I have found that almost 90% of the businesses are doing JUST “offline marketing.”

What is offline marketing?

Basically it’s the “traditional” style of marketing using tools and services that aren’t “online.” This includes radio, Yellow Pages, newspaper advertising, etc. Now that isn’t to say traditional marketing is bad, but the reality is…it is very expensive. Radio ads, television ads, and especially newspaper advertisements, are all costly expenses to get your marketing message in front of your target market…expenses that you dont HAVE to suffer.

Have you heard of popular online websites such as YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, or the biggest of them…Google?

Millions, if not billions, of people are using these sites daily to search for information, reviews, and experiences with various products and businesses…including the same products and services that your business provides. Small businesses have double, tripled, quadrupled, etc. in a matter of days as a result of getting FREE exposure on these massive websites. For example, one lawyer was able to slash his marketing expenses by $25,000 PER YEAR using FREE videos on YouTube.com! Ford Models (a multi-million dollar company) was able to increase their profits by 140% using FREE YouTube videos alone! Then there are companies who’ve literally reached the 7-figure mark in profits using free services such as Twitter.com and Facebook.com

How would you like to dramatically increase your profits using FREE online resources?

I suggest you start today, and start generating new leads and customers without spending any additional money. A win-win scenario!

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? Just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!

Talk to you soon,

There’s an old saying: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”

The reason I ask is because many business owners, I talk with, are completely frustrated with the declining sales and profits that is occurring within their businesses, yet they feel like they have no control over helping their situations. However, when I ask them what their current marketing plan looks like, they give me a blank stare and say, “What marketing plan?” Can you see the problem? By creating a sold marketing strategy, and writing it down into a structured planned process for increasing sales, and profits, there is an almost immediate result as far as improving profits for a business.

What is a marketing plan exactly?

Basically it is a written blueprint of what methods and steps will be used to promote and market certain elements of your business to your target market. The secret to a successful marketing plan, is identifying exactly how you will take a prospect / new customer, and transition them into a paying customer / client. By mapping out this plan, you will not only see higher ROI for your marketing efforts, but you will also be able to identify where the “profit leaks” in your marketing are, and stop them…

This results in less wasted marketing, and increased profits!

That’s the simple version of creating a marketing plan, but you get the idea. By creating and implementing a written marketing plan, you will be far ahead of your competition who is not! Such plans should also be created for any marketing campaigns, advertisements, events, etc. to identify (PRIOR to the marketing) what steps you plan to transition any leads generated into paying customers.

Any questions, comments, or concerns regarding how to get started? Just contact me and I’ll point you in the right direction!