It’s Not About Imitation, CopyCat or BandWagon Marketing |  |
- It’s Not About Imitation, CopyCat or BandWagon Marketing
- 7 Deadly Sins of Online Marketing for Small Business
- Small Businesses Hire When Their Revenues Rise
- SBA Recognizes National Small Business Person: A Model for Entrepreneurs
| It’s Not About Imitation, CopyCat or BandWagon Marketing Posted: 28 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT It's about where your people are and what they want. It's about the ones who pay to get it. It's about effective marketing.
Recently, Trendwatching released a brief on (R)etail (R)evolution that highlights four ways that e-commerce is transforming including the bridge between the online and offline experience. What's online becomes a part of our offline shopping with tools like:
This can be exciting but that depends on how you use it. Change Is Good, If It's Smart And EfficientUpgrading the way your clients interact with your business has a lot to do with what THEY want. You don't have to wait for complaints to make wise adjustments. But you do have to watch how they shop and how they respond to you and other companies and services like yours. You can get that information by observing and by asking. Every update to your business and your marketing should serve a specific purpose; because effective change is not about copycat or bandwagon behavior. It's about what actually works. Whether Website or Social Media…You need to understand the reason for developing and using it, and you need to understand the goals. Any marketing expert that you hire should be able to explain it in a way that you get. You may not understand the details but you should get the big picture, before you dive in. Are your people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn? If they are, then what are they talking about on those networks and can you organically join the conversation? Are your clients avid mobile users? If so, you may need to pay attention to their mobile shopping habits and make some tweaks to your web and mobile presence. Is your audience text happy? If so, start looking for a way to join that conversation. Start crafting a message and making an offer that your people would be happy to receive. You have marketing options, but it begins with you understanding who your people are, what they want and where they go (online and offline). It begins with you, then your team.
From Small Business Trends |
| 7 Deadly Sins of Online Marketing for Small Business Posted: 28 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT Online marketing has become an important part of the small business toolbox. In order to reach consumers and grow your business, there are a variety of tactics and tools you can use – from online advertising to social media marketing to reputation management and more. Managing all the ins and outs of running a small business is complex, and juggling all the different aspects of online marketing is a responsibility in and of itself.
So, take a minute to make sure you're not committing any of these seven deadly sins when marketing your small business: 1.) Not Tracking Your Online Advertising One of the incredible benefits of online advertising is the ability to track it. If you're advertising your small business online, it's important to track not just the clicks you're getting to your website or landing page, but also what happens after the click. Are customers calling your business, filling out a form, or leaving your page after they click? If you don't know, how will you know if your advertising is actually working to help your business get more customers? Many sophisticated online marketing products will allow you to track all this and more, so you can not only learn the effectiveness of your campaigns, but also optimize them around what's working as well. So, start tracking your online advertising to make sure you're getting the most out of your investment. 2.) Not Locally Targeting Your Online Marketing As a small business, there's a good chance a large majority of your client base is made up of local consumers. If so and you're investing in online marketing and not targeting it locally, it could cost you. Not only will you pay more to target national keywords and spend more to compete on these terms, but you may also be missing consumers who are searching for a local business just like yours. By locally targeting your online marketing, you can get a better return on your investment and more effectively reach consumers who are looking for local businesses. Even if you want to invest some of your online marketingon broader efforts, it's critical to make sure to include localization as well. And, by tracking the success of each strategy, you can find out what works best to help you get more customers and shift more of your investment there. 3.) Not Claiming Your Google Place Page You may already be investing in SEO to help your website rank well in organic search. A Google Place Page is another valuable tool that can help your small business show up in desktop and mobile search to local consumers searching for a business like yours – and it's free to use. If you haven't claimed your Google Place Page, make sure to do so immediately. By claiming and optimizing your page, you not only gain more control over what's listed about your business, you can also gain valuable shelf space on Google for important business keywords in organic search. 4.) Failing to Optimize Your Landing Page for Conversions Most forms of online marketing include a goal of getting people to visit your website or a specific landing page on it. But if it's not optimized for conversions, you may be losing a lot of potential customers despite all of your efforts to get people to that page. Is your contact information prominently displayed and easy to locate at the top of your page? Do you have a clear call to action directing visitors to perform a specific action – like calling your business or filling out a form? Is the most important information clearly visible above the fold, or do visitors have to scroll down to find what they really need? Contact your web developer to talk about changes you could implement to make your website more effective at converting customers, which will boost the effectiveness of your online marketing. 5.) Not Training Staff on Lead Handling Many small businesses spend so much time and effort focusing on the front end of the marketing funnel that they neglect one of the most important components of the marketing process. What happens to a lead once they express interest in your business? For most small businesses, one of the most costly aspects of the marketing equation is how your staff handle the leads that come to you – whether by phone, email, fax, or in person. You're investing a lot in generating leads, and every lead counts! That's why training all your staff on how to properly answer the phone, respond to a customer request, and handle leads is so critical. 6.) Poor Customer Service Did you know that the service your customers receive at your small business is a critical component of your online marketing? That's because word of mouth is still one of the most powerful influencers on consumers. And in today's digital world, what your customers say online about how your business treats them is a part of your business Web presence, whether you like it or not. If you're guilty of bad customer service, chances are that this news will spread fast online. The good news is, word about great customer experiences spreads as well. That's why it's important to make sure your team is well versed on how to provide world-class customer service. That's why it's important to make sure your team is well versed on how to provide world-class customer service. 7.) Letting Your Online Reputation Go Unchecked What exactly are people saying about your small business online? Letting your online reputation go unchecked can be a huge mistake – especially if there are unaddressed negative reviews about your business that are ranking well in search engines or gaining a lot of attention on review sites. A negative online reputation can cost you customers. So, instead of wondering what people are saying about your business online, make sure to conduct a regular online reputation analysis so you can discover the negative and address it while focusing regular efforts on asking happy customers to share reviews about your business to build the positive buzz about your business. Are you guilty of committing any of these deadly sins of small business online marketing? Do you have any to add to this list? Share your thoughts in a comment! Business Devil Photo via Shutterstock From Small Business Trends |
| Small Businesses Hire When Their Revenues Rise Posted: 28 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT In the discussion of why small businesses are not creating as many jobs in the current recovery as they have in past economic expansions, one simple fact has been missed by many observers: small businesses create jobs when they need more employees. And companies need more employees when they sell more products and services. Data from the recent Wells Fargo Small Business Survey, a quarterly survey of small businesses with no more than $20 million in annual sales, illustrates this pattern clearly. Since Wells Fargo began collecting their data quarterly in the second three months of 2007, the correlation between the percentage of owners who indicated that their business's revenue increased over the previous 12 months and the percentage who indicated that their business's employment went up over the same period, has been 0.9. (A correlation of 1.0 means that two numbers move together perfectly, while a correlation of 0.0 means that there is no relationship in the movement of the two numbers.) While fewer small companies decrease employment than suffer revenue declines and fewer small businesses increase employment than experience revenue increases, the two numbers clearly move in concert. Therefore, if we want small businesses to hire more, we need to help them boost their revenues. Share of Small Businesses with Rising Revenue and Employment:
Source: Created from data from the Wells Fargo Small Business Survey From Small Business Trends |
| SBA Recognizes National Small Business Person: A Model for Entrepreneurs Posted: 28 May 2012 02:30 AM PDT This year’s National Small Business Week in the United States recognized one entrepreneur who turned her personal struggle with illness into a business to benefit the rest of humanity while others were celebrated for their individual ingenuity. As we say goodbye to another small business week, we also see how the focus here in the U.S. and abroad remains on entrepreneurship as one solution for addressing the challenges of the global economy. Entrepreneurs RecognizedPersonal trial inspired small business person of the year. Last week, Ohio native Victoria Tifft was named National Small Business Person of the Year by the Small Business Administration. After contracting malaria as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, she founded Clinical Research Management, a company supporting development of FDA-regulated vaccines, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices for government and commercial customers. The Washington Post Small biz video creators honored for ingenuity. In this Google Hangout to commemorate the winners of a National Small Business Week video contest, winners are honored for their creativity and interviewed by Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration, about how SBA programs helped them and can help others. The White House Small Business Stays the FocusPolitical hopefuls court SMBs. The Obama administration’s efforts to court small business owners have been clear, but it winds up that it’s his opponent who leads in the polls. Small business leaders remain a critical constituency in the 2012 U.S. presidential campaign. CNBC Where candidates stand on critical issues. Media coverage has focused repeatedly on where the two U.S. presidential hopefuls stand on policies that affect small business, and each campaign has pledged its candidate’s support. The attention speaks volumes about the importance of this segment at the national level. The Associated Press Big business also pushes small biz agenda. Addressing attendees of the Zions Bank Trade and Business Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, last week, Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard, stressed the need to invest in the long-term success of small business as the key to making the U.S. an economic leader worldwide. KSL.com Entrepreneurship not just for 20-somethings. The SBA and AARP announced an alliance last week in support of “encore” entrepreneurs, those over the age of 50, who wish to start or grow a business. Through counselors and business mentors, the two organizations plan on training an estimated 100,000 men and women over 50 who are starting or running a business. SBA.gov Why all the fuss?Small business exports could save America. From Zippo Manufacturing Co. to DSC Dredge, a trend for hiring over here and selling over there is not covered much in the media these days. But these small businesses could be the salvation to the U.S. economy as they serve a growing global middle class. The Atlantic Main Street excels in job creation. From 1992 to 2010, small businesses outperformed larger companies in job creation by 75 percent, according to a recent SBA study. It is estimated a new effort to extend credit to these small businesses via the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act could create 140,000 new jobs in its first year. Huffington Post Small business will conquer the world. It’s no hyperbole, says business expert Steve Strauss, who insists that a variety of global trends like new markets and new technology have led to a world in which entrepreneurship can and must dominate the global economy. USA Today Entrepreneurship defies even tough economies. Proving that entrepreneurship is stronger than the harsh economic realities, bad governmental policies, and combative social climates that sometimes that surround it, these Hungarian business leaders are thriving, even in the most inhospitable environments. The New York Times From Small Business Trends |
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