Computer Consultants Secrets ™

When you use direct mail postcards as part of your IT marketing plan, you don’t have to worry that they will get thrown in the garbage bin without being read.  Because they are already open, they will at least be seen by your prospects.  You also will save money on postage for cards when you use them as part of your IT marketing plan.  

Target, Target, Target!

Targeted IT marketing campaigns are always more effective than those that are not.  Don’t send the same message to 2,000 small businesses in your area and hope for them to hit on hot buttons.  Target a specific group and find out what really concerns them.  Then come up with a message that speaks to this concern and stress you have expertise in their specific area.

IT Marketing Postcards Can Build Relationships

The goal with direct mail is not to close the sale.  You can’t get them to agree to a $25,000 client server network just because of a little postcard.  Relationships take time and effort to cultivate.

IT marketing postcards should generate a response.  You want prospects to say they are interested and then focus your energy on nurturing the best opportunities of those responses.  Then you want to try to get them to agree to a seminar with other people that have expressed interest or a free report or free needs analysis.   

IT Marketing:  Urgency is Everything

You need to make sure people know there is an urgency to what you are asking with your IT marketing materials.  They need to act now … or never!  You don’t want people to take your postcard, read it and file it away indefinitely.  You want people to get to know, like and trust you.  The best way to do this is to encourage one-on-one contact or one-on-group contact where they can see you in person and know what it is like to work with you.

Blogged By:  Joshua Feinberg

Many VARs are starting to incorporate environmental awareness into their daily business lives at great benefit to their growth and services.  Virtualization technology in particular is helping VARs grow their own businesses and also save customers money, reduce energy consumption and costs to themselves.

According to Virtual Iron, climate change and depleting natural resources has caused many VARs to go the “green” route in order to stay competitive, streamline business operations and help bring clients better and more sophisticated solutions.

According to CMO of Virtual Iron, a leading provider of VARs for many businesses Mike Grandinetti, a lot of businesses think about profit first and neglect social issues.  However, many ideas surrounding the “Green” movement are helping VARs combine the two ideas together at greater benefit to their businesses – making more money for their own company and also helping the environment.

Issues like server sprawl, physical space and rising energy costs have plagued businesses of all sizes along with the problem of old hardware that is sucking up valuable power and generating too much heat.  Virtualization is helping a lot of VARs improve server performance as well as reducing the amount of servers needed; according to surveys, using more environmentally sound solutions, VARs have been able to reduce the number of servers needed to run a business by one-third to one-half.  Grandetti also states that regardless of the size of a customer or the horizontal or vertical market occupied, all VARs can make the “Green” concept work.

Virtualization was initially designed for enterprise customers with a great deal of money and very large data centers but is quickly becoming very relevant to and possible for SMBs that don’t have the financial flexibility of larger companies.  VARs are helping to provide some options for small businesses through virtualization in the form of very flexible alternatives both to what they are currently using and to the more expensive solutions they cannot afford.

For more information on this story about the “Green” movement and VARs, visit the attached link.

Added By:  Joshua Feinberg

The simple answer to this question about computer repair and national service organizations is, “Absolutely not.”

Why?  Basically, you’ll spend a great deal of money and more importantly TIME getting certified and learning cutting-edge technologies.  But, when it comes down to it, computer repair – hardware repair – is a commodity and can be an incredibly low-margin situation.  As hardware becomes more disposable and replaceable, less people even engage in real computer repair.  And, computer repair contracts and IT consulting contracts in general with national service organizations just don’t work.

Disposable Hardware

As an example, think about a $600 consumer-grade PC.  Who will spend money on computer repair for this type of hardware when it has passed its warranty point?  And who will spend money to fix an out-of-warranty $400 laser printer?  Not many small businesses would do this, and neither would national service organizations.  

Low Labor Allowances

National service organizations usually will be dealing with warranty repairs on pretty inexpensive hardware … so how much labor allowance will be available for computer repair on a $1,200 laptop?  A lot of big hardware vendors are usually close to going out of business.  Unless you’re Dell, HP and IBM and are a vendor, you probably will be depending heavily on these low-end repairs to stay in business.

What is the Profit Margin on Computer Repair Contracts?

Think about it – you will probably not make much more than $50-$200 (at the absolute MOST) on a computer repair.  So what is a better choice?  Finding small businesses in your area that need high-level, sophisticated IT planning and services very regularly.  

You Won’t Make a Profit with National Service Providers

When you are a subcontractor for a national service organization, you won’t be able to efficiently run your business.  You will be in eight different offices each day instead of one or two.  You will be told that you only get $65 for even a complicated, lengthy computer repair instead of billing out at $100 or even $150 per hour.  It’s just not practical, and your computer repair business can’t last that way!

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Sending a mailing to current customers should be part of your computer repair business marketing plan. 

Why?

First of all, your customers already know you and know what your computer repair business is all about.  You already own the list, and the people on it already know, like and trust you, which are three of the biggest obstacles to overcome when it comes to successful marketing.

What Should You Stress with Your Marketing?

If you know a lot about virus protection, firewalls, passwords, data backup and power protection, this is a good place to start when mailing to computer repair business customers and trying to get them to agree to IT audits.

Offer a discounted IT audit package.  For example, if you usually charge $400, you can offer a special good through an expiration date — $299.  You should also think about including a bonus such as an entry-level battery backup unit or surge protector … or simple just a CD or DVD of the last data protection seminar you gave.  Make sure your offer has real value to customers.  

Track Marketing Results

With any computer repair business marketing strategy, tracking is important.  So tracking the responses to a mailing you send it critical.  You might get five percent inquiries and note that half of them end up taking the audit, which will help you predict responses to future mailings.   Remember your audience of computer repair business customers is going to be more responsive than anyone else you target through direct mail.  

Help Computer Repair Business Customers Use Their Assets

You need to look at existing customer relationships and determine more ways you can help them use what they own already.  They probably have bought a lot of useful assets that they aren’t even using, but that could really bring them increased productivity and benefits.  

Solidify Computer Repair Business Relationships

Direct mail and talking to your current customers can not only help you help your customers get the most out of their current IT assets but also can help you get good service revenue.  Also, this type of contact helps establish the relationships that will sustain your computer repair business long term.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit

Recently computer business Hewlett-Packard (HP) made an agreement with Tower Software, a document and records management company to take over its company.  HP is based in Palo Alto and will attempt to expand its compliance business by purchasing the Canberra, Australia-based business.

Tower’s main package is TRIM Context, an enterprise content management system that helps organize information while following best practices.  If computer business HP’s acquisition of the company closes during the second quarter of this year, as planned, the computer business will fold the TRIM package into its information management software business alongside HP’s current Archive platform (known previously as the HP Reference Information Storage System – RISS).  TRIM Context will add important records management to HP’s current platform.  

Tower serves 1,000 global customers, with most of these being in Australia.  Computer business HP plans to take the new offering to larger systems integrators such as EDS of Plano, Texas and BearingPoint of McLean, Virginia.  Also a focus will be mid-market solution providers.

The details of the computer business acquisition have not yet been released.

Added By:  Computer Consulting Kit