February 2002

Welcome to Bizland News - Edition 4

Editor's Note

Now that the first month of 2002 has come and gone (time flies full stop!) we have managed to fit in a couple of planning meetings, and I am pleased to say that we will be bringing you a great newsletter line-up over the next six months and hopefully beyond (okay what with Piers jetsetting off to the USA the minute he got back from leave we only had time for one planning meeting, so we only got as far as June!)

We have gathered a couple of experts together who will be writing on marketing, the budget for 2002, insurance, labour, human resources, and any other issues that come up that we feel you should know about - I urge you to read this month's article on email newsletters - some valuable pointers... We will also be bringing you some interesting and inspiring success stories, and hopefully be speaking to some interesting people. But we don't want to type away at our keyboards completely oblivious as to what you want, so please tell us what irks or inspires you, or even share with us a funny/sad/outrageous story about your business dealings. Or tell us about someone you feel could really be an excellent example of beating the odds and making it in the tough world of SME's. We would love to hear from you - send all your feedback to comments@bizland.co.za. As always, feel free to send this newsletter on - removal instructions at the bottom.

And on the subject of what irks you - I would just like to share an experience with you - something I hope all you entrepid entrepreneurs will learn from. My husband and I are in the market to make improvements to our house, and yes while we may not look old enough to even have a mortgage, we still deserve the attention that anyone else gets - looks can be deceiving! Anyway we had someone from a reputable company come give us a quote, and we were told that we would receive this in writing the following afternoon. That was over two weeks ago. Do you think we will use this company? No. If they can't be bothered to get back to us before we have even made up our minds, what does that say about their after-sales service? There is plenty of competition out there - let's hope we are more successful next time. In this day and age business is so reliant on word-of-mouth - make sure that nobody has something bad to say about you - ever. Enough of my rambling...onto the newsletter!

In this month's issue:

Feature Article: Simple Technology to Target your Clients - by Meryl van der Merwe of Jamboree

For the past five years I have managed a children's clothing store in Cape Town. Marketing became one of my biggest problems - newspaper ads are expensive and don't generate a great response for our store and direct marketing campaigns are completely out of our price bracket.

But I desperately needed a way to communicate with my customers. Two years ago, I decided to try using an email newsletter to keep in touch with my customers - and I've never looked back! Customers signed up enthusiastically to get on the mailing list, and soon I was receiving emails like this, which encourage me to keep going:

"I think your idea of mailing customers with pictures of items and prices is FANTASTIC. Thank you so much. In an age where time is a premium, this idea is just great. Looking forward to future mailings and assuring you of my support."

In an age of rising costs and increased use of the Internet, an email newsletter is something every business should consider. For the purpose of this article I'm assuming an email newsletter is targeted at existing customers, who have given you their permission to email them. As an email newsletter is essentially a tool to build a relationship with your customers, it won't help your cause to send them something they didn't ask for and don't want!

The biggest benefit of an email newsletter over a printed one is obviously the cost. 1 sheet of paper + photocopy / printing costs + 1 envelope + postage + the labour involved stuffing the envelopes will cost in the region of R2.00 to R3.00 per customer. If you have 1000 customers and you email instead of posting, the cost will be 1 telephone call i.e. you will save R2998.50 (1000 customers x R3.00 = R3000, based on 2.5 minutes to send an email to a newsgroup = R1.50).

Another benefit of using email to get a message out to customers is the faster turnaround time. There is no time delay waiting for printers, spending days stuffing envelopes, and then waiting ages for unreliable postal deliveries. In a matter of hours, your customers can be reading your news - and responding to it. Christian Book Discounters, for example, frequently uses their newsletter to offer discounts, valid only for short time period - and they start receiving email orders for the books on special within hours of the newsletter being sent off.

Email newsletters also make it easy for customers to respond to you. It is far easier for them to dash off a quick response and hit the 'Send' button, than to use the phone or fax. Just be sure you respond promptly to them. The speed of the Internet has made people expect quick answers - if you don't reply within 24 hours you are going to get irritated customers.

So how do you gather email addresses for your mailing list? You need to collect them at all points of customer contact. In my store, we have forms on the counter which customers can complete while we cash up their purchase. Customers can also sign up on our website. Credit application forms and any other forms customers may fill in, should always give them the opportunity to request your newsletter.

Referrals (or 'word-of-mouse') will also provide email addresses. This email from S.Harris is typical of ones I receive regularly:

"Could you please add me to your subscription list for your newsletters regarding your new stock and specials? I always share my colleague's (newsletter) when she receives it from you."

Email newsletters should be sent out on a regular basis. I send mine out once a week as we receive new stock almost daily. Depending on the nature of your business, you may only send yours out once a month, or even once a quarter. But you must do it regularly. Our newsletter goes out on a Thursday night - in time for the weekend - and many customers have emailed me to say how they look forward to Friday mornings, as they know it will be in their Inbox when they log on.

The content of email newsletters will differ from company to company, depending on the products / services offered. I use mine to advise of sales, specials and new staff. I also detail every new item and include photos of most of them. Twice a year I send out a survey requesting feedback on our past season's merchandise, the service they received in store etc. Because it is easy to fill in the answers and email back, we get a very good response rate to our surveys.

Newsletters can also be used to provide in depth information about your products. For instance, a specialty cheese shop could explain how the different cheeses are made and what they can be used for. A hardware store could provide useful DIY tips. A travel agency could feature different destinations in each edition. In our newsletter we explain the fashion colours and styles for the coming season.

You can also get your readers to contribute to the newsletter. You could start a discussion forum on a certain topic or ask them to send in tips for the other readers related to the product(s) you are selling. We allow our customers to place adverts at the end of our newsletter for personal items they want to sell or services they offer. This creates a sense of community and encourages them to feel part of your company. Ultimately their loyalty to you will be increased.

The style of your newsletter must be appropriate to your subject matter and the people receiving it. I use a fairly chatty, informal style and write as one mom to another. From time to time I share snippets of personal information, such as when I go away on holiday, and my readers respond by sharing similar info with me. When my last baby was born, I included the news in my next newsletter (in case you're wondering - no - I didn't skip any newsletters!) and it was amazing how many people emailed me their congratulations. Although I had never met most of them (I don't spend much time in the store), they felt as if they knew me because of the newsletters.

Email newsletters allow a lot of creativity in their presentation. It's easy to include photographs, clip art, animation, interesting fonts and even music. Just watch the size of your newsletter. If you add in too many frills, it could take ages to download and this is not popular with recipients! If you know HTML, you can produce very sophisticated documents, which allow your readers to jump from one section of your newsletter to another.

It is a well known fact that it is easier to sell additional products to existing customers, than to gain new customers and what better tool to use than an email newsletter. Try it for yourself and you'll be astounded at the impact on your business.

Additional reading:
Email Marketing by Jim Sterne and Anthony Priore, published by Wiley
The Eng@ged Customer by Hans Peter Brondmo published by Harper Business

Visit Meryl's website at www.jamboree.co.za

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Bizland News

We have a lot of great ideas for Bizland this year, and hopefully we will be introducing lots more to the website, including a small business forum, online tax return functionality and more. We will also be continuously adding to our articles database, so make sure you don't miss anything new! Of course we will always be on the lookout for anything new and exciting to add, so if you spot something we missed, let us know!

What's new on the website? In conjunction with Master Currency, we have added a useful Currency Converter to the Bizland website - which is able to convert any currency and also features the new Euro conversions. The time of year to fill in your tax returns is almost upon us, so click here to read SARS's information guide. There is also a new email virus going around, called Myparty.A - click here to read more about it. This week we will be focussing on tax in our Moneyweb column on the left of our site, so don't forget to look at it to make sure that you have all your bases covered!

We will be adding new features on a regular basis, so keep visiting http://www.bizland.co.za to keep up!

*Still not sure about Capital Gains Tax? Visit http://www.bizland.co.za and click on the link on the left for our free CGT guide!

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Success Story

This is YOUR space. We want to know who you are, what annoys, inspires or impresses you in small business, funny stories, advice, or how you got on the road to success. Please share with us and we might publish your stories or comments in the next issue. Send your contributions to success@bizland.co.za - we look forward to hearing from you.

This week's Success Story: Making a difference
"If you think you are too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito" - Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop.

Born in October 1942, Anita Roddick grew up with her working class Italian immigrant parents in Littlehampton, south of England. She spent her childhood years helping out after school in the café that her parents and grandparents ran, sharing a room with the rest of the family while the other rooms in their house were let out to bring in some extra cash. Having completed school, she went to college to study education, and taught for a while before deciding to travel. She eventually ended up working at the United Nations

On her return, her mother introduced her to Gordon Roddick, with whom she had an instant rapport. Anita and Gordon were married in 1970, and together they had two daughters. In the early years of their marriage, they started a few businesses together, including a picture framing shop, a restaurant and later a hotel, however they eventually found that the hard work was not bringing in suitable returns, and they packed it in.

It was while Gordon was travelling in the States that Anita first got the idea for the Body Shop. Tired of spending lots of money on huge quantities of expensively presented cosmetics, she saw the need for affordable, every-day cosmetics in cheap packaging, all made from natural ingredients. And so she set to work on her first line. She opened her first shop in Brighton in 1976, and by the following year there were already several successful Body Shops under franchise operations.

Anita and Gordon worked together to develop their unique philosophy for the Body Shop - not only to increase profits, but to use the shop as a platform to create social and environmental change. Anita is a staunch promoter of social responsibility, human rights, and the protection of animals and the environment. The Body Shop gets a large amount of publicity from the various organisations they support, such as Greenpeace, Save-The-Whales and Friends of the Earth.

Today the Body Shop has grown into a multi-national company with over 13 hundred stores in 46 countries. Anita has received a number of awards, including various achievement awards, environmental awards and outstanding entrepreneurs award. She was also awarded the order of the British Empire in 1988, and holds honorary degrees in law, science and business administration.

Anita truly lives by her motto: "A woman in advancing old age is unstoppable by any earthly force."

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*Got something to sell? Why not submit to our free classifieds section?

Next month…
Next month we will be talking about the budget for 2002, so send us your comments or questions about this topic to comments@bizland.co.za.

Until next time...

Sally & Piers

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