Affordable IT Support for Small Businesses : Meeting Your Budget Needs 7 Aug 2024, 3:58 pm

The Growing Need for IT Support

Small businesses are increasingly reliant on technology to manage operations, communicate with clients, and secure data. As the dependence on IT grows, so does the need for reliable IT support. Many small businesses, however, struggle to find affordable IT services that fit within their limited budgets.

Importance of Budget-Friendly IT Solutions

One of the primary concerns for small business owners is maintaining a manageable monthly budget for IT support. Overspending on IT services can strain financial resources, while under-investing can lead to technological vulnerabilities and inefficiencies. Finding a balance is crucial for ensuring smooth operations without breaking the bank.

Cost-Effective IT Support Options

Fortunately, there are several ways small businesses can secure affordable IT support:

• Managed IT Services: Opting for a managed service provider (MSP) allows businesses to outsource their IT needs for a predictable monthly fee.
• Cloud-Based Solutions: Leveraging cloud services can reduce the need for expensive hardware and on-site maintenance.
• Remote IT Support: Many issues can be resolved remotely, which can significantly cut down on costs compared to on-site visits.
• DIY and Training: Investing in training for staff to handle minor IT issues can save money over time.

JR Direct offers all of the above and specializes in Small Business support.   We ONLY work with small business and limit our customer base to ensure we can support our small local business owners.   We don’t upsell solutions and we customize the approach basde on your business needs.

We are “Your IT Team” and our hands on direct support means as a small business you have access to the Affordable IT support you need.  If you thing we can help your small business out please reach out to us.

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Deepfakes, do you need to worry? 5 May 2020, 11:16 pm

With the US political season quickly approaching you may start to hear about something called “deepfakes”. While it has important privacy and political ramifications, what does it mean to your business and your brand?

What is a Deepfake?

Let’s start by explaining what exactly a “deepfake” is. A deepfake uses advanced imaging and AI algorithms along with a large sample set of photos to transpose some else’s face on another video. The videos are extremely convincing under the right circumstances.  They can also be combined with faked audio to create a very convincing video that is entirely fabricated.
Initially deepfakes have been used fairly light-heartedly to superimpose Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face on Bill Hader or insert Nicolas Cage into classic movie scenes. But while the technology may be in its infancy, it’s already extremely convincing. While most videos have a eerie feeling, you can’t quite put your finger on, we expect in the very near future fakes might become indistinguishable from the real thing.

These deepfaked videos can be used maliciously, to spread disinformation and lies. Combining deepfaked videos with a public that is ready and willing to accept news with very little supporting evidence, the results could sway political allegiances or further erode the public’s trust about what they see online.

Used in a political setting these videos can have a huge impact. Imagine the effect of a personally damaging video released right before an election, even if discovered to be a fake the damage could already have been done. It’s a potentially scary future and the ease of access to the technology to create them makes misuse that much more likely.

What does this mean for your Business?

But what does all of this mean for businesses? Well, if someone is inclined, they can potentially sabotage brands by putting words into their CEO’s mouths or  having political/celebrity figures make damaging comments about those brands. Slander and libel can have hugely damaging effects on brands, but what if that Slander and Libel is coming from your own CEO or a well-known figure?

For smaller companies the major risk is typically related to social media. You will want to ensure that whoever is managing your brand online is especially diligent in verifying video authenticity and is equipped to respond to fake content. Viewing fake content is bad but retweeting or spreading that fake content is even worse. You don’t want to be taken in by a ruse as the damage to the integrity of your brand can be immense.

In this day and age, you have to be extra diligent in verifying that the information you post or retweet is in fact real. Especially if videos or content seem too good to be true. For now, it’s just important to maintain diligence and be aware that these videos exist and are a potential threat.

We have no doubts that you will be hearing more about this in the future, especially as the technology advances.

To find out more on how JR Direct can help you manage your brand and direct your marketing efforts.

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Customer Service Series : Does building goodwill pay off? 21 Apr 2020, 11:07 pm

As a Consultant I often share information freely with clients and prospective clients. That includes forming basic plans, outlining strategies for them, and helping to roughly design or refine campaigns. We never expect compensation for this, we just hope to be involved in the venture if there is a role we can fill.

In more cases than not we don’t end up doing business with these clients. They might choose to try things on their own or the campaign never gets past the idea stage. But we are fine with that.

But often this openness results in a long-term client where we both benefit from the relationship or someone we initially consult with ends up sending us a referral at a later time. However, I often wonder (and I have received many similar comments) if this goodwill ever pays off.

Accountants have it easy, calculating good will is a simple formula, “The difference remaining after assets, minus liabilities”. In a Consulting capacity however, the formula gets muddy quite quickly.

I can tell you anecdotally some of our best clients have turned into long term partnerships and become cornerstones to our business for many years. In my eyes, prioritizing goodwill has never served us wrong.

But ultimately a perfect formula is just not workable. So, does customer goodwill pay off? Well, the best answer I can give is that it depends on what type of company you want to be. Do you value the relationship, or do you value the transaction?

Many companies do quite well placing value on the transaction. Large printing companies like Vista Print for example make slimmer margins and a large volume of transactions work, and their customer service is reasonably responsive. However, for complicated campaigns that are beyond just a few brochures or business cards, smaller firms excel by relying on building strong relationships with their clients. This is both for financial reasons and functional ones; it’s very difficult to deliver a quality product if you don’t know the company you are dealing with. You need to know their goals, capabilities and budgets to deliver a product or campaign that meets their needs.

Transactional relationships also carry a risk. If a strong competitor arises, you can often see business dry up, since by not building loyalty customers can easily move to the cheaper alternative. Building long term relationships and providing value beyond just your pricing makes price competition less of a factor.

So whatever strategy you choose to follow, make sure you head into it with your eyes open. Know your goals before you start and execute your strategy accordingly.

For more information on how JR Direct can help you build your next campaign.

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Direct Mail, where do we stand with COVID 19? 7 Apr 2020, 10:59 pm

COVID-19 has had a pervasive effect on our health, society, and the global economy, so I guess it should come as no surprise that it has had a dramatic effect on the local and international direct mail as well.

Both internationally and locally, delivery destinations can be a concern. With COVID-19 shuttering many businesses, your mail may not be deliverable if targeted at businesses that are not open to collect it. Additionally, even if they are open, many are running skeleton crews or employees are working remotely, meaning the individuals you were hoping to reach (in the case of marketing mail) are not there to receive it.

Residential mail is a different situation with its own challenges. There has never been a time in history (at least that I can remember) that the guarantee that a resident would be at home to receive your mail has been higher. However, with many people concerned about what they bring into their homes, mail is often quickly discarded because the homeowner is unsure who has handled it.

The guidelines state that the risk of contracting Corona Virus from products or packaging shipped over a few days is low. The World Health Organization has supported that same conclusion stating:

“The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, traveled and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.”

Nevertheless, that can be a challenge to explain to a concerned resident, as “low risk” is decidedly different than “no risk”.

That said, if your mail does get through and read, there is a situation right now where you are marketing to a captive audience. But what you plan to market now more than ever matters.

If you think back to your usual mail deliveries in a pre-COVID 19 world it often contained things like restaurant coupons, promotions for retail businesses in the area, real estate promotions and other things of that nature.

While restaurants might still be open for pickup, most retail businesses have seen shopping die off as Canadians and others worldwide are requested to avoid non-essential outings and stay home if possible, only leaving for the necessities. Rightly so, a stigma has developed where no one wants to be seen ignoring the public safety guidelines, so business for most of the retail sector has started to dry up.

But the right products or services marketed to the right customers can now more than ever work. Meal or grocery delivery services for example, or on-site services to allow people to get what they need while staying home, are in high demand. Home tutoring or remote activities for children are increasingly needed as schools remain closed. There are many services that would greatly benefit from Direct Mail right now, even though some of the traditional businesses that rely on direct mail are choosing to suspend mailing for now.
Now is very much a time of uncertainty, however as the world gets through this looming threat, we should start to see things return to normal, and normal business practices resume.

For now, stay home, stay safe, and stay healthy.  To find out more on how JR Direct can help you manage your direct marketing efforts.

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Google Chrome Notifications : Don’t overdo it! 31 Dec 2019, 6:00 pm

As with any new technology/marketing channel there is always an uptick in adoption especially when you find yourself adopting it or being targeted by it.  Chrome’s Push Notification system is just that channel, it can be a marketer’s dream and a users nightmare all tied into one.

What exactly are Chrome Notifications?

Chrome Push Notifications prompt the user when they visit your site and request permission to allow notifications to be pushed to them at a later date even if they do not visit your site.  What is particularly insidious and yet brilliant all at the same time is that end users have been conditioned recently to “allow” cookies to be placed on their PC’s so most users blindly click “allow”.  You now have a direct channel to the users desktop anytime you want to push a notification out.  Better than an email that ends up being deleted or placed in a spam folder!   This is the dream part.

Now a quick search will yield a treasure trove of results all asking “How can I turn them off?”  This is where the user nightmare begins!   If you engage the users too much you’re risking damage to your brand and pushing your desired audience further away.  It’s all a very delicate balance.  Much like email, if you don’t overdo it you’ll be ok.  Notify them when a super special is on, but don’t tell them about every blog post! You want them looking at your products, not googling how to remove your notifications.

The people over at pushengage.com wrote a great article on Best Practices on how to use push notification.  I recommend if you’re considering push notifications that you consider reading it.

JR Direct can help you develop an overall branding strategy that will help you keep your most important asset engaged.

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Should you be mailing at Christmas? 18 Dec 2019, 3:22 am

The same tough question always appears around this time of year: “Should I be mailing through the Christmas season?”

Warning! Here comes a non-committal answer: “It depends”

Everyone markets a different product and service, and what works for some doesn’t work for others. It really comes down to the fundamentals of knowing your product and knowing your market, then proving your hypothesis with testing.

For example, businesses don’t typically like to make a lot of big changes during the holiday season, so B2B products like staffing services, insurance plans, equipment sales, etc. may view the holidays as a poor time to market.

But then again, those same businesses often start their budgeting for the new year around this time, so maybe it’s a perfect time to get in front of them. It’s common to have conflicting opinions, so in this situation what do you do?

A preferred approach is to make a list and map out the pros and cons. If the results come back one sided, an overwhelming “no”, then maybe it’s not the right time to market. However, if the results are mixed it sounds like you should be testing.

Testing doesn’t have to be hugely expensive to be effective. Targeting a small but measurable group of prospects or existing customers can give you enough information to tell you if your hypothesis is correct or requires some adjusting.

When possible, you should try to keep your testing empirical by using an offer you have benchmarked in the past. But you could always throw caution to the wind and test something specifically created for the holidays. Just know that your results could be skewed by the offer, or affected by the time of the year. If you’re mixing elements in your testing, you have to take all your results with a grain of salt, as it will be difficult to tell which element was the determining factor.

Being empirical in your testing is important, but missing a chance to boost your sales because you are being too cautious can also be detrimental. Find the mix that works right for you and test whenever you can afford to.

And remember, if all of this seems like too much to manage feel free to reach out to JR Direct for help. We apply our years of experience to your direct mail campaign to maximize results and minimize cost. Get in touch with us for help with your next Direct Mail Campaign.

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Connect with Your Customers – Building Brand Loyalty 19 Nov 2019, 4:00 pm

Consumers are inundated with advertising for products and services every day, through social media, through ads and signage on the street, through direct mail, email, tv, radio, sms…and the list goes on. So how do you, as the consumer, make the choice? And how do we, as the marketer, keep you as a customer once you’ve chosen us?

Convenience and visibility are key factors. Customers aren’t going to dig around for the content, information or products they’re looking for. If they don’t find it almost instantaneously, they’ll find it elsewhere. But while being convenient and visible may get the customer in the door, how do you keep them coming back? The answer may be obvious: by personalizing the experience and building a loyalty to your brand within that customer.

There are a few tips to consider when building brand loyalty:

• Brand Consistency – The customer should get a similar feel every time they get an opportunity to utilize your product or service. Be sure to deliver what you promise, every time. Your brand warrants visual consistency too. Logos and design elements should be the same whether in person or online.
• Social Media – use it consistently. Be current and try to inject an element of humour when it makes sense to do so. Give your fans a voice to get them talking, then address their comments promptly.
• Giveaways or Reward programs – offer a rewards program or some sort of customer recognition. This could be in the form of a points card, a rebate, coupons, or something free on their birthday.

Present-day customer service differs from the customer service of the past. It’s evolving, and marketers need to shift their focus to a more personalized, experienced based approach. Superior customer service begins from the time the customer shows interest, then up to and after the point of sale. As businesses offering a product or service, we need to deliver value, engage with our customers in a positive way, listen to customer feedback early (and often), and adjust accordingly.

Brand loyalty is affected by both good and bad customer service interactions. Customers are much more likely to share a bad experience than a good one. We need to strive to keep their experience as positive as possible; even a dissatisfied customer may still return if they’ve achieved what they consider to be a positive outcome to their issue. Negative customer experiences can lead to poor reviews, and with social media at the forefront of the review platform, this could adversely affect your brand.

JR Direct has had loyal clients for over 30 years. Let us show you the techniques to building your brand and keeping your customers engaged long term.

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Privacy Rules – Do they affect you? 22 Oct 2019, 7:41 pm

These days more than ever, it’s important to be aware of privacy regulations. The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) laws regarding data privacy in European countries (and for European citizens located elsewhere) are setting a precedent for other countries to follow. Marketers need to be conscious that all relationships begin with a basic degree of trust, and data security is a critical component in establishing that trust.

Marketing and sales are becoming increasingly digitized, and along with that digitization comes new tools to create extensive customer profiles according to the customer’s needs, wants and behaviors. All along we’ve known that collecting and retaining customer data is a vital component to successful marketing, but what’s been changing over the last few years is establishing rules to ensure that data has been harvested in an ethical manner, and the introduction of rules to protect it once you have it, as there are big risks if you don’t.

Some steep penalties have resulted for recent data breaches:

• Marriot – fined $123 million dollars by the UK data protection agency, for alleged knowledge of a data breach that existed when Marriott purchased Starwood Resorts last year.
• Facebook – fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission for violating privacy regulations.
• Google – in January, France’s National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) levied a record €50 million GDPR fine against Google, which arose from data abuses involving how Android accounts were configured, how their mobile data was handled and how the consent to handle that data was obtained. And this isn’t the only fine Google has faced over the past couple of years.

While these penalties haven’t affected much in the way of how these multi-billion-dollar corporations do business (they’re more like a slap on the wrist for these giants), smaller companies could be more severely impacted. For example, even if laws in a country don’t yet exist or are applied inconsistently, the company within that country is still subject to the GDPR regulations for their customers that are EU citizens. GDPR fines can be as much as 4% of a company’s revenue or 20 million euros, whichever is greater. And if the fine doesn’t severely impact business, the bad press might.

It’s only a matter of time before other countries implement and/or start to adhere to more stringent regulations like the GDPR. Now is a great opportunity to take the initiative and incorporate a data privacy infrastructure into your business model. If you intend to generate positive, successful relationships with your customers, credibility and awareness are crucial.

JR Direct has engaged in successful client relationships for 30 years. Contact us to find out how we can help you to create a custom solution that meets your specific marketing, technology or data needs.

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Are you ignoring Boomers? Maybe you shouldn’t. 8 Oct 2019, 7:00 pm

Surprisingly, Boomers have over 70% of the disposable income in the United States and spend more time online than 16 – 34 year old’s.

With a description like that you would think every marketer would be beating down their doors, but they’re not. Today, only 5% of advertising is targeted at this lucrative demographic.

Boomers are the generation born after the Second World War, with birth dates between 1946 and 1964. They’re the generation marked by Woodstock, The Beatles, the Vietnam War, and the Civil Rights Movement. They enjoyed some of the best years of economic prosperity, and soaring wages. Now each day thousands are leaving the job market, and with more free time and a huge amount of disposable income, they are looking to spend if you approach them the right way.

While many might view this demographic as having a love hate relationship with technology, the stats show something else.

• 60% are on at least one social media site, with Facebook being by far the most popular.
• Boomers spend 27 hours per week online
• They are 19% more likely to share content compared to other generations
• 92% are shopping online rather than in stores and malls
• Long form, slower paced informational videos appeal to Boomers

I’m sure you now see the appeal of this demographic, but how do you target them? Well, an integrated approach is going to be your best bet, an integrated multichannel marketing strategy that involves direct mail, email, social media and web. For example, a Direct Mail lead piece that pushes them to the web for more information and converts them to a sale would a fantastic conventional approach.

So you want to target Boomers but maybe you need some help? Well you’re in luck, JR Direct is happy to help with anything from targeted lists of Baby Boomers, to the creation of a direct mail piece, a website, or a social media campaign.

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Why do you need a consultant? Is it worth it? 10 Sep 2019, 10:32 pm

From small to large companies, consultants are hired for a variety of reasons.

Consultants support companies in many ways, such as handling advertising and promotions, managing finances, helping with investments, managing employee benefits or simply by hiring other employees.

The main reason to hire a consultant is to improve training, marketing, production or finances to make the company more profitable.

Consultants review business operations to reveal flaws and potential problems based on their client’s request. Businesses can develop tunnel vision; consultants often bring new ideas or processes to an organization which would not have been organically developed.

In most cases consultants are hired to perform a function or set up a business process that the client does not have first-hand experience with. For example, a manufacturer who wants to start selling their products directly may have great knowledge and experience in manufacturing but may not have the skills in marketing and web development. This is the perfect situation to hire a consultant. The consultant might come in and coordinate the development and set up of the website, order processing, billing and shipping, and at the same time train new hires on how to fulfill their roles. At the end the consultant may move on or stay and provide ongoing support.

A consultant is a specialist, his/her role is to provide expertise in multiple business decisions to ensure that the company is equipped to handle the challenges they are facing. Hiring good consultants can allow a company to tackle challenges that they are not prepared to deal with quickly and professionally. It’s a way for a company to swiftly adapt to changes.

It’s also important to keep in mind that someone who specializes in Marketing may not be good at Human Resources. You must take care in hiring the right consultant for the right job.

What to look for in a consultant?

• Most importantly, their skills need to match the task you need help with. You need the right tool for the job.
• They must follow instructions, and have clear communication skills. A consultant is a trainer, and not only do they need to know “what” to do, they need to be able to explain to you “why” you need to do it.
• Someone who can work efficiently to execute the task required. Consultants often bill hourly, so looking at rates doesn’t often tell you the whole story; you also need to know how quickly and competently they work to effectively assess their quote.

Before hiring a consultant, make sure the business is sustainable, with a good quality product or service that appeals to customers. Consultants are not miracle workers; no consultant is going to take a business that has fundamental problems with its business model and quickly turn it around.

If you are looking to grow your company and you know the areas where you need help, hiring a consultant may be a good idea. However, if you are looking for someone to solve core problems with your business, or lack focus on what elements need improvement, you may be disappointed.

If you want to find out more about JR Direct’s marketing and business consulting contact us.

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