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One of our most popular newsletter posts – we thought we’d revive it for the new Altrincham HQ website as an archive post

5 SIMPLE THINGS ALTRINCHAM BUSINESSES DO WRONG
Twitter JAPAN - image by Xotoko
1. Fail to utilise all the benefits of social media

We walk through George Street in Altrincham and our town centre and regularly see shops or cafe’s with more staff than customers

Social Media is the perfect tool for those quiet times to simply get out the laptop and engage with the customers online

A little social media training can help put you in the right direction or for those who are busy / can’t find the time – outsource it to a Social Media Company

Don’t believe us that Social Media works – walk around Chorlton or Manchester’s Northern Quarter for examples of areas where businesses thrive via Social Media
Email
2. Treat email as a barrier rather than something to help you

If a customer walked up to you in person, said hello and you ignored them – do you feel they would come back or recommend your business to friends? No

Well, email to us works exactly the same and one thing businesses in Altrincham don’t handle well are emails

For the past 12 years over various businesses, we are used to Manchester City Centre or London based businesses emailing back within hours or 24 hours at most.

However email an Altrincham business and quite often it takes a week to get a response.

Our other email bugbear are contact forms on a website rather than a simple email address – yes it pads out your contact page, but you can’t beat a hard email address

Lowest Price
3. Compete on Price rather than competing on quality or a USP

Poundland, Poundworld, Pound Bakery – we’ve all seen the pound shops and discount shops popping up around Altrincham and it’s pretty much universal that we’d rather that they weren’t there

But it’s not just poundshops that are competing on price rather than quality

Look at the amount of Bars that are offering “Curry Club” style meal and a pint deals for tuppence – no thankyou, i’d rather go to Essence or Double Tree where its real quality food at a good price

Bars that offer Jaeger Bomb deals – no, because everybody offers the same, so we’ll go to Costello’s as it offers something different

The businesses that offer quality, something different (i.e a USP) are the one’s that are flourishing – take note!!!

Chalkboard
4. Presentation Presentation Presentation

A massive bugbear of ours is the chalk A-board outside restaurants and bars – they look terrible, we often can’t read the writing and when it rains it’s useless

Similarly handwritten posters falling off shop windows are equally as unappealing

There are an abundance of graphic designers and photographers in Altrincham of which offer competitive rates, we could recommend a number to suit all sizes of businesses

Just as you’d use a professional designer for a local newspaper advert – use a designer for your instore POS advertisements

Teenagers - Cover
5. Forget about the youth or teenage market

How many of you saw the recent Advertiser and Messenger stories on 2 Asbo Teen’s being barred from Altrincham Interchange?

How many of you noticed the address of the one amusingly title Schmeichel?

It certainly wasn’t poverty that was making them head out on the streets, but poverty of ideas and a lack of places to go

If you look at businesses such as Yogberries on twitter – they’re making great moves into marketing themselves to teenage girls at Altrincham Girls Grammar and its working.

The youth have disposable income, but they’re being ignored in favour of their parents who have a mortgage and little disposable income.

Why aren’t more businesses offering student discounts for those in education or with an NUS card

Alex McCann

Author Alex McCann

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