Common mistakes can kill your small business, but most of them can be easily corrected or avoided.
Today’s Bad Example: Not staying in touch
I asked for some examples of small biz mistakes on Twitter, and you answered! First up is shashib:
not using their mailing lists at all ( Restaurants collecting addresses from feedback forms and sleeping on them)
This is pretty common. Lots of us have mail or email data on our customers, but we don’t take the time to write!
Solutions
Those contact lists are gold! Your customers want to know what is happening in your business, and they are interested in all sorts of news and tips written for their perspective.
Learn to re-use your writings. The same wonderful conversational items for your blog are easy newsletter fodder! Enlist some help to handle the newsletter, either paid or volunteer.
At the very least, send occasional postcards or other short mailings.
Keep the customers’ needs first in your mind when you write. And stay in touch.
Your Assignment
Together, we are going to try to help each other out of these most common, deadly mistakes. You can use real world examples, real small businesses. Write it up, take a picture, or shoot a short video. Take care not to embarrass the offenders! Key point: include suggestions on how to do it right!
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