Nov 2, 2024 | Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy
Keeping small businesses in mind, sometimes, marketing campaigns can seem overwhelming. We can get sidetracked and lose focus on the campaign’s objective. Let’s expand on the tips Jillian shared last week in Marketing for the Small Business in a Poor Economy.
- Be strategic with your marketing and advertising efforts. A marketing plan is a road map to keep you from getting lost and wasting precious time and money. If you have multiple products and/or services, segment and focus the plan using the 80/20 rule. Target your efforts on the products or services that will generate 80% of your revenue.
- Focus on your existing customer base and reward their loyalty with a loyalty plan or referral program. An e-mail list is ideal for reaching existing or prior purchasers. Reach out and bring them back with incentives, news and new products info, promotions such as loyal customer discounts, etc. A satisfied client with circle back and buy your you again if you reach out with a promo on something they may be considering.
- Create content that is informative and valuable to help your target market. Build relationships not by trying to sell, but by educating and offering solutions to the prospects’ needs and wants. Rather than focusing on how great your products or services are, talk about the benefits, how your products will make the customer feel, or how your services will address their needs.
- Use data insights to analyze the value of your marketing. Analytics provide a wealth of information to help you focus your products/services to your prospects’ needs. Look for analytic reports from your own sales as well as your competitors
- Remain agile and ready to pivot at any time. Analytics and market trends will give you insights to help you adjust your marketing. If you’re selling a solution that’s no longer relevant or trending, you need to re-invent your offering to capture the attention of those looking for what they want or need, not what you have right now.
- Consider doing videos and podcasts, to attract and build trust with customers. This is selling without selling. Showcasing your knowledge or products, addressing a prospect’s needs to a problem or helping them choose a particular products by discussing the features will build trust. Prospects do business with companies and people they trust.
- Improve the affordability of your offerings. This does not necessarily mean cut prices. Offer alternatives, like financing, payment plans, scheduled repeat orders, etc. Think outside the box, get creative.
With the New Year approaching, this is great time to review your marketing strategies; determine what has worked and what can be enhanced.
We’re offering a free Marketing Plan Template to help organize your efforts and maximize results. Just download and customize.Or Contact us to help you develop a strategy.
Nov 2, 2024 | Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy
We’ve all heard “it’s who you know” that brings in business. “People buy from who they know and trust.” But if you’re stuck in an office most of the time, how can you build relationships and share with people what, exactly, you can for them?
You can still build strong connections even while mostly office-bound. Some of the ways to do this is to actively engage with customers through digital channels like soliciting feedback, running targeted campaigns offering personalized interactions, following up with customers post-sale, dedicated customer relationship management (CRM) systems built into your website, email, and social media.
Soliciting Feedback
Here are several ways to find out how customers feel about your business and services.
__ Use live chat interactions on your website and social media
__ Analyze customer calls
__ Ask for feedback on social media
__ Provide feedback forms on your website
__ Send post-purchase emails
__ Offer incentives for feedback
__ Targeted Marketing Campaigns
Here are Some Tips for Creating a Targeted Marketing Campaign:
__ Identify who needs your product and who is most likely to buy it
__ Conduct a market analysis to identify your audience’s challenges and pain points
__ Use audience segmentation by dividing your audience into subgroups based on shared characteristics
__ Create an omnichannel marketing strategy by creating a customer centric approach that delivers consistent brand messages across all marketing channels
__ Analyze your campaign data by examining your analytics to identify what worked well and what didn’t
Following up with Post Sale Interactions
You don’t want your customers to feel that once your job is done, you don’t need to have anymore conversation with them. Make sure they feel that you care about their business by staying in touch with them even if the job you did was a one off job.
CRM
A few months ago we dedicated our emails for about 2 months to adding a CRM to your websites to help build relationships with your customers or find new customers. Here’s a link to those articles to refresh your memory
How to Make Your Website Your 24 Hours a Day, 365 Days a Year Sales Team
Email Marketing
Email marketing by reaching out consistently to your mailing lists with news, updates, trends, etc. It’s a great way to tell people all about your business just as you would be doing if you were out networking. As Charles said, “it shows you are on top of your industry, keeping customers current with news. They will rely on your knowledge when making purchasing decisions.”
Social Media
Maintaining an active presence on the social media platform that is best for your business is great, but how do we do that consistently when we’re busy with the day to day details of running a business? Honestly, it’s not enough to just post; you need to interact with those who comment on your posts. This keeps you busy. But this builds relationships just as much as if you were out networking. (We have a solution for that).
With the New Year approaching, this is great time to review your marketing strategies; determine what has worked and what can be enhanced.
We’re offering a free Marketing Plan Template to help organize your efforts and maximize results. Just download and customize.Or Contact us to help you develop a strategy.
Nov 2, 2024 | AI (Artificial Intelligence), digital marketing, Marketing, marketing for professional practices, Relationship Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy, Web Design
Using Chat-Bots to Market Your Small Business or Practice
Have you ever gone to a website to find support and you encounter a little box that pops up usually on the right side, asking if it can help you?
You really wanted to speak to a person or at least submit a support ticket? But you don’t readily see a phone number or a way to fill out a support ticket. So you decide to speak to the little box.
It says, “Hi, I’m ___________. How can I help you today? You find yourself trying to explain politely to the box what you are looking for. Sometimes the little box understands you right away; sometimes it asks you for more information. You try again to politely explain what you need. Now the little box comes back with, “I still don’t understand you. Can you explain more clearly?” Now you’re getting annoyed and are a little less polite. You think, “maybe the little box doesn’t understand being mannerly, so I’ll be more straightforward and use less socially gracious words.” So now, you just speak simply, precisely and clearly. Now you think you will make some progress, but the little box comes back with links to articles that it thinks will help you. So you give up. You just want to speak to a person!!!
But, the little box passes your message on to real support person and lets you know that one of the support team will get back to you. And someone usually does but often it’s not until the next day depending on where they are located.
Pros of Chat-Bots
I’m sure you’ve experienced this scenario so you know what I’m talking about. There are some positive uses for chat-bots, especially when combined with the option to choose how you want to communicate with a business.
Chat-bots are great for quick answers to simple questions.
- They can save time and offer relevant suggestions.
- They are multi-linqual
- Can be accessed over all communication channels; phone, email, messaging apps, and social media.
- They are available 24-7.
- The business owner that opts for a chat-bot on their website has the opportunity identify potential new customers who interact with the chat-bot when you aren’t available.
There are limitations as I pointed out in my opening paragraphs; but chat-bots can be useful to small businesses who don’t have time or office staff to always be available to take a call. Chat-bots help you recognize that someone “out there” has a need for your services which then provides the opportunity for you to follow up on that lead.
When I design websites, I always ask the clients if they would like this form of communication added to their custom website. But, in addition to adding a chat-bot, my recommendations are to make all forms of communication available and easily visible. Adding the chat-bot, the phone number (hyperlinked to make it easy to dial), and a hyperlinked email address (making it easy to email you right on the spot) all in one spot next to each other makes it convenient for the customer to contact you with the method of their choice.
Just this simple addition makes your website user friendly and ready for customers to contact you.
Nov 2, 2024 | Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy
Increase Your Business Awareness with a Holistic Marketing Strategy
Most businesses need a marketing strategy to keep their business going. A business can’t exist in a vacuum and, unfortunately, some businesses are left with that option because of the high cost of marketing.
Developing a holistic marketing strategy that encompasses both online and offline channels is a healthy way, and relatively inexpensive way, to increase business awareness. A multi-faceted approach maximizes your reach (and that’s the key) and helps increase sales for your business.
Our approach to a holistic marketing strategy is this:
- Custom designed thank you cards for business referrals
- 2 Social Media Platform posts up to 3X weekly
- Landing pages for each product category or practice area you want to promote
- SEO (on-page and off-page)
- Monthly eMail blast
- Google reviews & testimonials from customers
- Google Ads
We’re currently offering 20% off on this marketing strategy that we will design and implement for you. To learn more about the details, go to our home page.
Get 20% off your 2025 holistic marketing campaign. Offer expires 1/31/25. Contact us to learn more about how you can take advantage of this special and a free consultation.
Nov 2, 2024 | e-commerce, Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy
E-commerce is not only for retailers. Consider the advantages of adding e-commerce to your website.
The most important marketing tool for small business or a professional practice is a good user-friendly website that is designed with 2025 in mind. With the advances in technology, a website built years ago or is even older than 2023 is no longer going to be able to compete with the newer websites. What does that mean for a small business or professional practice? The older a website is, the less of a chance it has to be user friendly meaning it will be slower, perhaps not even mobile friendly, and will possibly not have up-to-date information about your business.
Your website is the foundation of your online marketing efforts. Every other marketing activity flows from that. Ensuring that your website is easy to navigate, mobile-responsive, visually appealing, and reflecting your brand identity will enable the visitors to more easily find what they are looking for.
E-commerce for Service Businesses
Let your website work for you so you can stay involved with running your business rather than fielding calls that could easily be answered on your website. Provide detailed and transparent information about your services and pricing to build trust and make it easy for customers to make informed decisions.
1. Consider Online Booking or Scheduling:
Allowing customers to book appointments or schedule services directly through your website will be convenient for them and time saving for you.
2. Payment Processing:
Set up secure online payment options, such as credit card or PayPal, to facilitate transactions and provide the opportunity for visitors to pay in advance for the services they booked.
3. Leverage Omni channel Marketing:
Omni channel marketing integrates the customer experience across various channels, both online and offline. Ensure that your marketing is consistent throughout all your marketing channels providing a consistent and seamless customer journey as they interact with your brand. The use of available technology can provide a way to engage prospects at various touchpoints whether they find you through e-mail, social media, your website or online business directories.
4. Content Marketing:
Creating valuable content is essential for online marketing but often difficult for small business owners or professional practices. They don’t have the advantage of a special department to provide consistent content to use in your omni channel marketing. Hiring an outside marketing consultant on a quarterly basis can help provide new content and ideas for each quarter. This can be particularly important if you have a seasonal business but is a good approach for all small businesses. Consultants can often see holes in your marketing strategies or provide a fresh approach to how you want to present your brand message.
5. Focus on Customer Experience:
Sorry to say, but customer service is not the best these days, so standing out in this area of your business will make you stand out. Great customer service needs to be a priority both online and offline to build loyalty and positive word-of-mouth referrals. Responding quickly and effectively to customer inquiries and complaints will win you a great reputation which will travel quickly.
6. Consider the Nature of Your Service:
Tailor your e-commerce strategy to the specific needs of your service industry. For example, landscapers might offer packages based on the extent of the work required, while a restaurant might offer packages based on the time of the year, special occasions or group size.
The bottom line is, not taking advantage of all the online tools that are available to you says something about your business. Not keeping up with technology, (we will never be able to go back) can give prospects a negative opinion of your business and your ability to provide the services they need. Employing e-commerce where you can is a great way to show prospect and customers that you want to make their shopping journey easy tailored just for them.
Sep 9, 2024 | Blog, Marketing, Small Business Marketing Strategy, Web Design
Businesses first started using the internet for commercial transactions in 1994/95. Today, most of us can’t even imagine what doing business would be like without the internet. I can remember what life was like before the internet, and I also know that my business wouldn’t have become a reality if it weren’t for the internet. So I am grateful for the internet and all the opportunities it has provided.
Considering businesses use the internet for their:
- Websites and website security
- Marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Accounting and accounting security
- Brand awareness
- Social media and their Reputation
- e-commerce and e-commerce security
- Customer support
- Cloud access
- Productivity
- Cost savings
- Presentations
- Content marketing
What could possibly go wrong?
Imagine waking up in the morning, looking at your website and finding it gone or offline! Worse yet, finding it hacked and held for ransom until you pay the ransom fee. (That’s probably the worst case scenario.) By having an IT consultant on your team you’ll know exactly 1) who to call and 2) you won’t have to explain the problem to a number of different technicians who aren’t familiar with your website.
The Value of an Online Marketing Team to the Small Business Owner
The most important marketing asset a small business can have is their website and all else flows from there. But often, small businesses are on a limited budget and will sometimes skimp on the website because they feel there so many “more important things” on which they need to spend money. I get it. Running a small business is tough and expenses are high and appear out of nowhere.
But someone once said to me, “the professionals I can’t do without are my attorney, my accountant and my web designer.” I would go one step further and include an IT consultant. Professional web designers and IT providers are crucial for a small business because along with the business owners’ expertise, they provide the necessary skills to help the small business owner market their business successfully.
Together the web designer and the IT consultant create an invaluable online marketing team. The professional web designer creates a beautiful, functional, and mobile responsive website; the IT consultant manages your website behind the scenes by hosting, securing and protecting your website. These two professionals go together like bread and butter, cookies and milk, hot dogs and beer…you get the picture.
The Web Designer.
A professional website designer not only designs your website according to modern trends and standards, but is able to add in the components needed to perform uniquely for your business. An attractive website is great, but, it also needs to function according to how you, the business owner, wants it to function. Here’s what you want to look for in a well-designed website:
- An appealing custom design
- Mobile responsiveness
- No broken links
- An SSL certificate installed for the visitor’s security
- Compelling website content that can be repurposed for social media and email marketing
- Good visuals
- Social media integration
- Quick to load
- Secure from hackers
- A smooth user experience – easy navigation – good content
- Call to Actions
- Accessibility to conform to basic ADA standards
- Cookie notices to let your visitors know your website is collecting information about their visit to give them a more personal and convenient website visit.
- Secure contact forms
- Quality but condensed text
- Well-designed home page
- Low bounce rate (How quickly visitors leave your website)
- A gateway to allow payments online (if that is something the business owner wants)
The IT Consultant
A web designer who works with an IT consultant is invaluable to you, the small business owner. Without IT, the website not only couldn’t be published, but it would be open to all kinds of problems. The IT consultant keeps your website running and safe from technology failure, hackers and malware by providing the following:
- Technical support
- Update software
- License renewal and ensuring compliance
- Regulatory compliance
- Assess potential threats
- Hardware repairs
- Install and configure hardware and software
- Hardware and software procurement
- Maintaining hardware and software
- Cybersecurity
- Data storage and backups
- IT Security
- Installs and interprets website analytics
The Bottom Line
If you want to find customers, you have to market your business and an online marketing team, working together with you and for you, will provide everything you need to successfully market your small business.
Together, these two professionals working as a team for you is immeasurable. One team. One phone call. Multiple services.
