Guest post by Alexis Bonari

The Fed says we’re in recovery, but there’s no doubt in my mind that there continues to be a great amount of uncertainty about the economy. Looking at various economic indicators like gold futures, gun sales, and home security systems definitely supports this theory. People feel threatened and insecure, and that fear shows up in their spending habits. These are serious considerations marketers need to take into account in order to prosper under these dire circumstances.

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns based in fear, and as much as we may dislike these techniques, they do tend to work. Given the length of time that our current economic troubles have been going on, an increase in consumer awareness, target demographics, and media fatigue this base strategy will not be profitable for every market. A good marketer knows how to make the best of every situation, and what follows is some advice for how to successfully approach these stagnant markets. Continue reading

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A few days ago I ran across a newspaper article that was supposed to be useful for readers looking to buy a laptop. It seemed to me it was either written by someone who knows nothing about computers and technology in general, or that they had found a very old article and translated it poorly. Either way, any reader trying to get advice from that article would have failed miserably. The paper obviously had no one tech savvy enough to write such an article. They still wanted it written and published it as it was, regardless of consequences.

Thinking of it, I realized there are actually quite a lot of businesses out there who claim to be able to do things they have no idea of. They are clueless about their real knowledge, talen and capabilities. Continue reading

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Those two concepts put together, not likely to win the “couple of the year” award, are they? And they shouldn’t, simply because guilt trips should never be part of business emails, especially when it’s the first email you send out!

Imagine this! You want to introduce your recently launched business. You mention your website, then jump to saying you have a kid who’s just turned two and add a link to cute photos of that kid. Then mention an obscure site you used to have but no longer exist. And finally, in paragraph 4 actually mention one of the services you provide. Nothing on your expertise, no reference to satisfied customers, no detailed skill set of your team. Just throw the baby in, that’s bound to work!

No matter how I twist and turn it, other than guilt trip, no other reason comes to mind for mentioning offsprings and showing photos to potential customers. Maybe, just maybe, if you were a photographer specializing in newborns and toddlers, there might be a reason for the photos. But saying your main quality as a business professional is having a child? It’s crazy! And the image of yourself you put out there has little to no chance to generating leads or sealing the deal.

Remember, you’re trying to build a business relationship! Yes, if you’ve had a client for years, a personal bond develops, you might even become friends and show eachother family photos. But if it’s a new client you’re targeting, keep it professional and tell them how you can help them grow their business. Honestly, they couldn’t care less about you as a dad!

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All companies developing commercial software products offer support services. Even open source solutions benefit from this advantage. Be it promoted as free (included in the license price) or as subscription-based service, the technical assistance seems more of a must than an additional benefit.

However, the types of support services and their quality play an important role in buying decisions, both for end-users and savvy IT personnel. For end users, it’s a question of abilities and knowledge they lack. They buy software products to make their lives easier, not to spend hours and hours trying to debug them (unless that’s their hobby). For IT professionals, it’s a question of time and resource management. If you need to invest in a certain solution, why not save crucial time and resources by acquiring one with technical assistance included. If you’d like to know more on why it’s recommended to call support instead of toying with a product yourself, I recommend this article I wrote a while ago.

Given the high importance potential customers place on tech assistance, support services need to be designed so as to represent a strong competitive advantage. And there are a few aspects you can think of to sketch a strategy to tune what you offer your customers. Continue reading

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