Running a small business can be a risky endeavor, but you don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing. Taken from The Reach Group’s Free Agent Formula–created by Cheri Hanson, Lisa Johnson and Cassie Pruett–here are the top five mistakes made by entrepreneurs:
Creating a business that follows money instead of your strengths. Without a passion for your product or service, you’re already at a disadvantage. Says Hanson: “If you’re unhappy or out of sync with your natural strengths, you may be diluting your main marketing tool.”
Matching your competitors instead of differentiating and finding your niche. “In so many industries, all the competitors are bobbing in a sea of sameness,” Hanson correctly notes. “Get out of the dogfight by serving unmet needs.”
Working one revenue stream instead of creating multi-faceted revenue models. From Hanson’s perspective, this means operating like a larger company in which your entire income is not derived from the hours you work and the fee you charge.
Packaging products from your perspective, not that of your customers. Today’s savvy consumers tune out spin and interruption. They’re looking for something that adds tangible value to their lives, so focus on real solutions.
Waiting for established media to cover you instead of creating your own. “Publishing is the new PR,” says Hanson. “Whether you create articles, checklists, resource guides, blogs, podcasts, video clips or quizzes, there’s a content strategy to fit your communication style and business goals.”
The Po!nt: Identify the pitfalls before you begin, and your business will stand a much better chance of finding success.
The more you focus on SEO strategy, the more you might begin to think you can outsmart Google. But Dharmesh Shah argues in an article at MarketingProfs.com that gaming the system with sneaky SEO techniques is, in the long run, a losing proposition: “It’s safe to assume that if you try to exploit a hole in the algorithm today, your advantage is going to be temporary,” he says. “More importantly, you carry a significant risk of having your Web site penalized or banned.”
According to Shah, some slight-of-hand tricks you should avoid include:
Link farms. Most SEO professionals agree that the number of inbound links plays a critical role in search rankings. Some less scrupulous practitioners, therefore, create a group of dummy Web sites for the sole purpose of linking to the actual Web site.
Keyword stuffing. Once upon a time, the constant repetition of certain keywords might have manipulated rankings. But no more–search engines got wise to this practice, and it’s now a wasted effort.
Hidden text. Placing white text on a white background–visible to spiders, but not to humans–is a seemingly invisible way to load a page with rank-improving content. But, he notes, “Regardless of how sophisticated the approach, it is still going to be detected at some point.”
The Po!nt: “An Internet strategy that is predicated on outsmarting Google is not a smart strategy,” says Shah. “Working with search engines instead of trying to exploit them is the only approach that works in the long term.”
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Both lines of credit and borrowing money on your credit cards can be effective ways to finance small business operations. Both are revolving, and charge interest only on outstanding balances. And both have predetermined borrowing limits. However, there are big differences in terms of cost, convenience, and risk.
The major difference is that credit lines usually have lower interest rates and higher available limits. Commercial lines of credit are therefore more cost-effective than credit cards. But that’s not to say that credit cards don’t have advantages — especially in terms of convenience.
Instead of asking your bank to transfer funds from your credit line to your checking account — to write a check for office supplies, for example — you can just whip out your plastic and charge it. Another credit card plus is record-keeping. Monthly statements are a handy way to track expenses for general record-keeping and tax purposes.
Credit cards also frequently come with perks like air miles, travel insurance, warranty extensions, and discounts on rental cars, hotels, and gas. If these extras are valuable to you and your company, credit cards make a lot of sense.
Additionally, credit cards offer grace periods on purchases, usually 25 days. That means you can avoid interest charges altogether if you pay your balance in full each month.
Fortunately, credit lines and credit cards aren’t mutually exclusive. You will certainly want to obtain at least one credit card for business expenses. But you may also want a line of credit for larger purchases and to draw upon during periods of irregular cash flow.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Business &Business Cards &Business Credit &SEO &Websites
Maintaining regular customers is more cost-effective than going after new ones. The 80/20 rule maintains that 80 percent of your business will come from repeat customers, so keeping those familiar faces coming back should be high on the list of priorities for any business.
But many businesses might take regular customers for granted and may not realize if some of those familiar faces aren’t frequenting their establishments as often. These tips will help you keep them coming back.
- Get feedback: Customers come to your business because you meet a need or solve a problem for them. As time goes by you need to determine whether you are still meeting those needs or solving their problems. The only way to effectively do this is by reaching out to regular customers through written surveys, questionnaires, telephone surveys, and your Web site. Ask specific questions about past experiences and clients’ current needs.
- Break the high-tech barriers: Voice mail, computerized phone calls, kiosks, and e-mail form letters do nothing to bring you closer to your customers. While technology has made it faster and easier than ever to communicate, it has also taken the human element out of business transactions. Customers have gone full circle and are once again seeking human beings when they have questions or problems that need to be solved. Being accessible, especially to regular customers who have established a relationship with your business, is very important.
- Create loyalty programs: Pay for nine car washes and you get one free. Many business owners have never thought about creating their own clever twist on such a simple loyalty concept. Customers like to be rewarded for their loyalty, whether it comes from paying for a one-year membership and getting three extra months for free or getting discounts in a frequent-buyer program. Make it a point to reward regular customers.
- Maintain a database and use it wisely: Reach out to your regular customers through e-mail. You can use software programs to periodically send messages to your regular customers. Even though it is a mass mailing, you can send something with a personal touch that captures your customers’ attention and meets their needs, which might coincide with a holiday or the change of seasons. Also, keep in mind that too many businesses send the same old reminders again and again. Therefore you should vary your means of contacting your regular customers.
If you have lost a steady customer to the competition or because of dissatisfaction with your service, you need to work a little harder to regain that person’s trust. Here are some tips for bringing back lost customers or clients.
- Offer an incentive for reopening the lines of communication: Give a discount for filling out a survey that could divulge why the customer is dissatisfied or went elsewhere. If you have a personal relationship with clients, there is such a thing as a free lunch: Make the offer and reopen the dialogue.
- Rebuild trust: Offer to resolve the problem and give them a guarantee. This time if they are dissatisfied with your product or service, or find a competitor that is charging less, you will immediately rectify the situation, whether you provide the service for free or beat a competitor’s price.
- Be accountable: Customers respect honesty and accountability. Therefore if you’ve made mistakes, failed to deliver on a promise, or mistreated a customer in any manner, you can simply and sincerely say that you are very sorry. Accountability and an apology can go a long way to rebuilding a relationship.
Whether you are trying to maintain your regular customers or looking to bring back those you have lost, it is always important to remember that flexibility and good customer service should be an inherent part of your plans.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Business &Websites
Advertising does not have to cost a lot of money. Some of the most effective ads can be very inexpensive.
Word-of-mouth advertising is often misunderstood. It cannot be passive if it is to be effective. You have to ask customers and friends and acquaintances for referrals- ask them to tell their pals about what a good job you do.
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An important form of communication that can inform and attract must-have customers is your advertising. Keep in mind that all of your communications and interactions with customers are forms of advertising.
Sadly, most business advertising of the traditional sort doesn’t work very well. That’s because many people mistakenly think the purposes of advertising should be to strengthen brand awareness, or win awards for creativity. In fact, advertising’s only goals should be to:
* Give your core customers a reason to keep buying from you.
* Give your must-have customers a reason to start buying from you.
* Increase your sales and profits.
If your advertising isn’t doing those three things, you might as well be throwing your money out the window. Some advertising is really just egotising — it makes management and the agency’s creative people feel good, but it doesn’t add to the bottom line.
In too many cases, companies work hard to establish a certain image, such as elegant department stores designed for affluent core customers. Then, they disseminate advertising filled with price-reducing offers directed to the bargain-hunting crowd, which certainly isn’t their core group.
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E-mail marketing, if done correctly, can be an inexpensive and quick way of reaching a very large audience. E-mailing advertisements (with permission to have the recipient’s e-mail address) can still become redundant and the recipient will likely ask to be taken off the mailing list unless you:
- Offer new discounted products or services regularly
- Provide very targeted mailings
- Offer some content
Even two or three sentences of original content can provide a reason to read your e-mail. It can also support the advertising that otherwise may be deleted. Short bits of information, such as five tips for a healthy lawn from a lawn care company or dressing for success from a clothing retailer are ways to keep your audience reading your e-mails. Establishing your own newsletter (which may only be a few paragraphs) can draw the attention of your readers. When e-mailing customers, you also need:
- A catchy headline
- A recognizable company name in the “from” box so they’ll know it’s from your business
- A simple one-click manner in which they can get more information on specific products or services
- A means of reaching customer service
Since you may only have one second to capture the reader before he or she hits delete, it’s to your benefit to make sure something interesting shows up in the window that displays part of the e-mail prior to the reader actually opening it. This window can literally provide you a “window of opportunity” to grab their attention. Make this about “them.” Unlike a press release, which tells the media what your business is up to, e-mail marketing needs to focus on benefits to the customer. Once you’ve got them reading, you can put as much as you’d like about your company farther down the page. They can elect to read it or not. Nonetheless, the farther down the reader scrolls, the more advertising and marketing information he or she will have absorbed.
We encourage you to sign up for a free trial.
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Do your business card whisper or holler?
The marketing adage below definitely has truth to it.
He who has a thing to sell
And goes and whispers in a well
Is not as apt to get the dollars
As he who climbs a tree and hollers.”
A typical business card design: The typical business card states a name, company name, address, phone, fax and maybe an e-mail address. This can cause you to loose out on a potential customers. For instance, plain old boring cards doesn’t convey to the customer what you can do, represent or the type of culture your business has.
A marketing tool: A marketable business card design states all of the above but also states at least one very powerful reason to do business with you (what you can do for the customer) More often than none this helps the potential customer become interested right away.
Professional business card design do allot more than just convey the information that’s printed on them. An ugly, card that’s printed from your computer will let the person know loud and clear “I AM A BEGINNER AND I NEED HELP”. A professionally designed business card conveys a first impression that last long after you are gone. After all, isn’t that what you want? Take the time and get your business cards done professionally!
Your business cards are the most portable, affordable and versatile marketing tool you will use, this will not be the case if it is a quiet and shy business card thats barely whispering your products or services.
Category : Advertising &Blog &Business &Business Cards &Design
On a call with a client recently, I got asked a question that highlighted how poorly many “Top 10/20/30 Tips To SEO” guides are done. The question was entirely logical, but if we as SEO bloggers (i.e. teachers) were doing a little more thinking and a little less rehashing, I’d have never had a client confused about this. The client asked:
“There are two SEO principles that are conflicting for me, and I don’t know which one to follow.
On the one hand, I’m told that I need a lot of content, because Google likes content. On the other hand, I’m told that I need to concentrate my PageRank by using good information architecture.
The problem is that the more content I have, the more links I need to put on my pages so that it’s all accessible to search engines. And that dilutes the PageRank flowing in any direction.
What do I do?”
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Building good business credit is the key to financial health. Without it, you’ll have a hard time opening a trade account at a supplier like Office Depot or receiving a business credit card or traditional bank loan. But all that changes once you’ve established a solid credit rating. Get started now.
STEP 1: GET YOUR PERSONAL CREDIT IN ORDER
Without good personal credit, it is very difficult to establish good business credit. Why? Because until your business becomes established, lenders will look closely at your personal character and trustworthiness before extending credit to your new company. You need to think about getting your personal credit in tip-top condition even before starting your business.
Category : Blog &Business &Business Credit
