Business Saves $1,177 Annually In 5 Minutes!

One important area of improving your profit margins is to reduce your costs. Sometimes you can reduce your costs without a reduction in the quality of service you receive from a supplier, sometimes you’ll see lower quality – cheaper isn’t always better. However…

Area saved #1 : Mary sent me an email saying that she was still paying $77 per month on her Sensis bill for a CitySearch web site.

CitySearch was one of the many online directories that popped up during the dotcom boom in 1997-2000. It was bought out by Sensis. Back in the 1997-2000 period many businesses were called with an offer of a new website for only $77 per month.

What many businesses didn’t realise is that this monthly fee went on forever. Sensis never contacted Mary to say “Hey we’re billing you $924 per annum for a web site we built 10 years ago, we can now update your website for free if you like.”

Mary’s website was replaced over a year ago (not by CitySearch), so I knew that the $77 per month was a totally unnecessary expense. I got Mary to cancel the CitySearch service. I only wish Mary brought it to my attention sooner. She could have saved over $1,000 in the past year.

STRATEGY FOR YOU : Check all your supplier’s invoices and question any unnecessary services.

Area saved #2 : Do you have a website? If you do you’ll be paying an annual fee for domain name renewal. Did you know however that I use Netregistry (an Australian company) – their annual fee for renewal is $44.95. If you’re paying any more than that you are paying too much.

STRATEGY FOR YOU : Check the bill from your domain name supplier.

Area saved #3 : Unnecessary domain name registration. Mary had a website ending with .net.au. DotnetDotau domains are really not needed. If you want to secure another domain for your business, register the Dotcom name as well as your DotcomDotau address.

STRATEGY FOR YOU : Don’t register or renew a DotnetDotau domain (.net.au). Save the money instead.

Mary’s savings per annum : $984 for CitySearch, $140 for (.net.au) and $113 for using Netregistry to renew her DotcomDotau address. Total saving $1,177.

(Actually it took less time for me to save my client $1,177 than to write this email. But I thought you’d appreciate this information.)

The lesson : Charges from suppliers for unnecessary or excessive fees is commmon. It’s worthwhile to periodically check all your invoices and question any charges you don’t know about or feel are overpriced. This is an easy way to improve your profit margins.

Buy Hummer, Get Free Shotgun – Real ‘Way-out’ Marketing!

Source : The Age, 16 March 2010

An American Hummer dealership is sending the Hummer off with a bang, giving away a free shotgun with every new car.

With the recent ‘wind-down’ announcement from GM (the makers of Hummer) the dealership’s owner, Jim Lynch, says that he wants his Hummers to go out with a bang. “There is now real reason to believe that the current inventory on hand at dealers may be the last of the new Hummers, we wanted to send them off with something memorable,” he says. “Browning and Hummer are prestigious brands and American Icons – bringing them together is a natural fit. “The guns have been a huge hit with our Hummer customers and now we are taking the ‘Guns and Hummers’ concept one step further,” says Lynch.

What’s this got to do with marketing?

Everything – Not only has Lynch Hummer value adding to their Hummer ‘package’ – they’ve chosen a controversial ‘product’. Being controversial means Lynch Hummer has received tens of thousands of dollars in FREE publicity. Heck, the article got my attention and I’m as far away from Missouri, USA as you can be (Perth, Western Australia). Well done Lynch Hummer – great marketing!