Finals just ended and I’m sure each and every one of you is working super hard before calling it a year. Good for you if you are going all out to boost sales during this holiday season. Kudos!
In this week’s Weekly Biz Buzz, there are 4 articles that you must read. Not only that they will improve your business and make it ready to embrace 2010, the tips provided might even take your business to the next level.
2010 is coming and we shouldn’t waste anymore time! Let’s get started. Shall we?
Achieve Better Response with Your Newsletter
Newsletter is an integral part of every company’s marketing plan. Newsletters can help to close down the gap between your and your customers or prospects.
Some of you understand the need for a newsletter but not sure about how to improve the response or whether you are doing the correct things with it. Amber Riviere’s blog post with the title, 11 Tips for Improving Your Newsletter, will give you some guidance on how to improve your newsletter.
One tip from the blog post that I wish to highlight will be point 5, “Don’t be too sales-y.”
While you definitely want to take the opportunity to let them know about your products and services or any special promotions you’re running, you don’t want to go overboard. Keep a balance between content and promoting yourself. Think in terms of ratios, maybe 80 percent content to 20 percent promotion.
Far too many businesses sell very hard in their newsletters, leading to a high unsubscribe rate. Instead, newsletter should really be a platform for trust and relationship building before selling comes in.
Are You Ready to Outsource Your Business?
All of you should know that I am a big proponent of outsourcing because I deeply believe that in order to scale your business, you need to let go some part of it. However, I do understand that some business owners are not ready to outsource yet.
If you are trying to make a decision on whether to outsource some of your business functions but you don’t know where to start, Seven Questions to Ask Yourself Before You Outsource by Lexi Rodrigo is a must read.
In this article, Lexi pointed out a few areas that you might face problems with if you are not ready for outsourcing. Outsourcing, just like any other new knowledge, will be hard to learn and apply at first. However, once you get the gist of it, you’ll get addicted to it. Trust me. 
Also, read my blog post on 9 Alarming Reasons to Outsource or Hire as well as an interview I did with Marshall Haas, where he shared some tips on outsourcing too.
Customer Service in 2010
Customer service is no longer an option. Not to be harsh but if your business is still not paying attention to customer service, you will not be in business for long. Good service is what all customers nowadays are expecting when they do business or buy something from you.
What are the trends for customer service moving into 2010? Getting in front before your competitors on customer service will make you stand out. Barry Moltz wrote The 10 Customer Service Trends for 2010 and as an entrepreneur or a small business owner, you should definitely read it.
One of the points highlighted in the blog post is that big companies are already trying to humanize themselves. As a small business, you need to take the extra mile when it comes to customer service in order to stay competitive against the big boys.
Pitching a Blogger the Right Way
Businesses always have two big misconceptions about bloggers. On one side, they think that bloggers are desperate for content. If they spam our email inbox with press releases and pitches for their products, we are going to write about it. On the other hand, there are businesses who think bloggers are a bunch of self-centered individuals and we only care about ourselves.
The reason why so many businesses fail to get coverage on blogs, especially those with authority, is simply because they are not pitching bloggers the right way. How to Woo a Blogger (and get coverage) by Lisa Barone is a blog post that you should read if you want to have a better understanding about bloggers and how they pick what kind of pitches to respond to.
As a blogger myself, I receive a few pitches weekly. Not in the region of hundreds but some of them still went straight to the trash. This is why you don’t see a lot of businesses or entrepreneurs got themselves featured on Wayne Liew Dot Com. By the way, my major pet peeve – copy and pasted pitches. I delete them, FOREVER!
Are You Ready for 2010?
The above will be the blog posts that deserve your attention this week. Let me know if you have any comments to add about the above blog posts.
How are your preparations for 2010? Any areas that you plan to improve yourself as an entrepreneur?
Share your thoughts and plans for 2010 in the comments section below.
If you like the blog posts I shared above, you may want to subscribe to Wayne Liew Dot Com Newsletter by submitting your first name and email address using the form below.
Photo Credits: Zach Klein
