The 5 Most Dangerous Trends Entrepreneurs Are Facing Today
Trend # 1 Fighting for attention
The average consumer is bombarded with more than 4,000 commercial messages a day. And that number is even HIGHER for business owners.
Attention has become the scarce resource in the information economy. The advertising and information clutter only gets worse when it comes to your email inbox, with countless hours wasted on spamming.
More and more people are joining the “Do Not Call” registry and many consumers are purchasing ad blocking technologies. Consumers feel like they are constantly bombarded with too much advertising.
Trend No. 2 Clients who leave you because of perceived indifference
Why do customers leave you …
1% Death 3% Movement 5% Purchase from a friend 9% Sold by a competitor 14% Product price
68% perceived indifference
Large global corporations now lose, and must replace, HALF of their customers every five years. Customers of a typical business are leaving at a rate of 10 to 30 percent per year, and this number GROWS annually.
“Most companies spend their hard-earned sales and marketing effort trying to attract elusive new customers when they probably have most of the business they will need in their database.” – Jay Abraham
A typical business receives news from only about 5% of its dissatisfied customers. Fully 95% just leave, most will never return.
60% -70% of customers who complain to you will do business with you again if you solve their problem. If they feel like you acted quickly and with satisfaction, up to 96% will do business with you again and will likely refer you to others.
If you do a great job, your clients will tell 2 people, while, as if you are not satisfied with one client, they will tell 22 people.
It costs five to six times more to get a new customer (for the first time) than it does to keep a current one, and it takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for a negative incident.
Trend No. 3: Increased Marketing Costs and Decreased Efficiency
Now it costs 3 times more in 2008 than in 1992 to reach potential buyers. In 1992, it took an average of 4 attempts to reach your buyer.
In 2008, 8.4 attempts are now needed. Therefore, half of the results of the same previous efforts are common.
As the popularity of search engine marketing has risen, so have the costs of playing the game. The costs of pay-per-click ads rise as the demand for online ad space increases. Organic search marketing is a long-term, uncertain, and often expensive endeavor.
The recent increase in postage rates is generating HIGHER COSTS for small publishers.
Newspaper advertising rates and yellow pages advertising costs are increasing as well.
Additionally, brand loyalty continues to decline, from 56% in 2002 to just 39% in 2007.
Trend No. 4 lagging behind with internet technology
Now more than ever … businesses MUST actively use and adopt the newest technologies such as: RSS, social media, blogging, video streaming, webinars, etc.
More than 50% of surveyed internet marketers now use or expect to test the following marketing channels due to recent market changes: – RSS – Podcasts – Interactive banners – Ads within online videos – Content generated by the user – Blogs – Social networks
Most small businesses are racing to catch up with businesses that are thriving with web applications that establish deep interaction, dialogue, and connections with their customers, prospects, employees, and partners.
The internet has transferred the balance of power to the customer, and companies that fail to empower customers run the risk of losing customers to competitors that are just a click away.
Trend No. 5: increased competition and increased business failures
We are in the midst of the greatest business boom the world has ever seen.
Nearly 672,000 new companies with employees were created in the US in 2005. That’s the highest company birth rate in US history!
30,000 more startups than in 2004 and 12% more than at the height of the dotcom boom in 1996.
96% of ALL businesses fail in the first 10 years … 80% of those that fail in the first 2 years.
Many of the reasons include: lack of planning, poor management skills, and not seeking professional help.
The next step …
Visit the Business Commandos website listed below and claim your FREE copy of Aaron Parsons’ Best New Book: “How to Make a Million Dollars in Your Business in 3 Years or Less” and while you’re there, find out! How to double your sales in the next 12 months with the Profit Acceleration Systems training program led by international award-winning business growth expert Aaron Parsons.