Category: business

83% of SMBs (small businesses) believe digital marketing (DM) is crucial for their businesses. Can you beat that? A simple “No”. The modern world is increasingly driven by digital media. We are constantly hooked to the Internet for something or the other. Such a digitally-influenced space makes a digital presence more than compulsory for every business to reach the customers. Boosting sales figures is the prime goal for SMEs taking to DM today. Added to it, SMEs are also counting on online marketing for enhancing brand awareness, lead conversion, and improvement of website traffic.

The post below shares 4 significant benefits of digital marketing for small businesses.

Customers are online

80% of potential consumers take to online media for information. When we come across a new business or company, the immediate reflex is to search for digital marketing in the web world. Gone are the days when we used to visit a store physically or call it up to know about it. Thus, it’s extremely crucial for a small business to have a strong presence online and digital marketing is the tool for it. Put simply, if your potential customer can’t find you online, she will immediately go to your competitor.

To connect to the modern “smart” world

Mobile phones are no longer used for mere calling or texting. In fact, smartphones are one of the most important tools to browse the web world today. 91% American adults are in constant touch with their smartphones. When it comes to searching for a product or service, they will naturally prefer to make queries from their smartphone only. If your business is not present online, just imagine the huge chunk of potential leads you are going to lose!

More economical

Capital crisis is a major problem for most of the small businesses. And this is where digital marketing comes as a savior. Online marketing is any day cheaper compared to traditional marketing. In fact, some of the channels are even free of cost. For example, it costs you nothing to make your business page on social media and stay connected to your customers online.

Digital marketing also helps you to save money. There are many online marketing tools that are available for free like free website builder, free email marketing management tools and so on.

Better ROI

On one hand, DM helps you to reach your customers while keeping the costs low. On another hand, it helps you to save money for your business. The end result is better ROI for your business over time.

Home cleaning presents a never-ending string of tasks that you need to address on a frequent basis. Many times you will want to be done as soon as possible so that you can move onto the next thing.

Unfortunately, many things stand in the way of efficient cleaning. You need to keep track of them and ensure that they do not affect your work too much. Else, you will quickly find yourself overwhelmed with tasks. Here is a list of possible factors that can slow you down, which you should keep in mind:

• Children – children can prove to be quite bothersome, especially when you consider the fact that they are part of the reason you are cleaning so much in the first place. Not only do they create a mess on a frequent basis, but they do little to help with cleaning. It doesn’t have to be this way. You can, in fact, make them part of the solution. Teaching them about cleaning habits and showing them how to clean from a young age will help them become more responsible as they grow up. Besides, instead of being a distraction, they will take the role of little helpers. As long as you task them with age-appropriate tasks, you will find that children will not slow you down, but instead significantly speed up the cleaning process.
• Pets – playful pets can slow you down when you start cleaning. This is especially true for the pets that aren’t afraid of a vacuum cleaner and come running at you as you begin your work. Perhaps it is a good idea to keep pets contained for the time you clean. This is not just because they can slow down the process, but also because some of the cleaning solutions are in fact harmful to them.
• Lack of cleaning solutions – obviously, you cannot perform cleaning duty without the right products and gear at hand. You need your all-purpose cleaning spray, some specialised cleaners for the bathroom and the windows. You also need to have a vacuum cleaner at hand, to deal with the dust in rugs and carpets. If you lack any of that, you better make a trip to the store before you begin. It is much better to be overstocked than to find out that you lack something halfway through your cleaning routine.
• Not knowing how to proceed – so you see an emergency, and you know you need to address it. But what do you do when you don’t know how? You will need to spend time on research and then acquire the right tools for the job, which can slow you down considerably. It is best to educate yourself on treating the most common stains so that you are not caught off guard.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to build my business. And in the tradition of keeping things simple, networking popped into the mix.

What? “network?” That’s a scary word especially for us introverts!

For most of us writers (and introverted) types, the very utterance of the word makes us cringe. Yeah, it’s that bad.

We’d like to think that we work in a comfy, safe world of solitude but the pure natural fact is…

… We don’t! And shouldn’t if you want to amp your game a notch or two.

Truth is, I am seriously an introvert and somewhat shy. My nature is to resist the whole notion of networking.

Here’s the crazy thing… I’ve been networking all along and didn’t even realize it.

My small network consisted of printers, competitors, colleagues, teachers, friends, heck I even had a few trusted family members in my network.

Each in their own way helped me out of the doldrums and into success early on.

Hey, if the pros in your field network, then maybe you should consider it as well. So, get over your bad-self and get your network groove on. You need this and it’s not that bad once you get started.

If nothing else go out and get your bad self a “starter” network. This can consist of folks you’re likely never to meet like biz people you admire, authors, bloggers.

The point is you can follow them and learn from them.

Another great to build your network is to start attending various events like masterminds, training events and seminars in your field. This is a great way to meet new people who can help you down the road.

The rule is, however, to give more than you take. Be cool about it for God sakes and not come on like a vulture who wants, wants, wants.

Do these folks a professional courtesy and offer your services for a discount. Be ready to give away some of your time and listen to their problems and help them find a solution. It never ever hurts to lend a hand now and then – especially when you’re getting started.

Selfish folks get shunned and ignored so don’t be one of “those guys.”

So, go out and get yourself a Rolodex (Carlton’s favorite way of keeping track of people). Or if you’re into the digital tools, track folks this way.

The point of to get started now…

A small network can be powerful and very profitable. Don’t believe me?

Here’s what John Carlton says:

“I like to remind the skeptics that I made my first small fortune from a network list of around 300 people. It was geyser of good clients, good pals recommending me, and colleagues who watched my back and helped me solve every problem I ever encountered. It’s a much larger list now, but those first few hundred were a revelation in the power of networking.”

I’ve been watching Mad Men lately. I gotta tell you, it’s practically become an obsession.

Though Sterling Cooper was a traditional ad agency, they still occasionally hit a few good ideas for their clients. One example was using coupons.

While this article is not about using coupons per se, we’re going to talk about sampling to boost your response.

Depending on your business type, sampling could be in many different forms. No doubt you’ve seen sampling used in grocery stores.

In fact, I was in the grocery just the other day and a dude had his grill fired up and was grilling some chicken and some veggies. And the savory aroma practically carried you to the cooking area.

So, the guy was promoting his new line of homemade BBQ sauces and marinades… He gave patrons hot-off-the grill samples of the chicken and veggies marinated in his sauces.

And brother let me tell ya… that was some guuuud stuff! And did the sampling work? I immediately bought every favor he offered. And there was a long line of others, bottles in hand ready to buy.

But there’s the thing. Sampling doesn’t apply to just food. Allow me to share another example of sampling.

If you happen to be in the information biz, you could offer a “sample” of your informational product like a sample audio, free report, or chapters/sections of the kit course or whatever.

You could offer samples for nearly anything… clothes, music, tools, you name it.

According to Claude Hopkins, “the product itself should be its own best salesman.” Do good, produce a great product or service and give folks a “sample” of the goodness.

Samples are great for several reasons. First, you can use the word “FREE” in your ads to entice prospects to request a sample. And friends, the word free still have compelling power in advertising. It’s still a great attention getter. And this leads to action and capturing prospects names and contact information for follow up later.

A Word Of Caution: Do use give out samples casually. If you use distributors to sale your products do not casually hand this out samples at will. Make sure they show true interest and they are qualified.

A simple way to qualify distributors is to have them complete a short request and be sure to key and track requests.

Now you have some new, low cost advertising tools to try out. So, give it a go.

Do you have a sample idea? Then share it with me. I enjoy learning what works and what doesn’t work for other businesses.

Before we get to how to make a good flyer, we have to understand the strategy behind a high-quality one. Here’s a basic rundown of a door hanger. As you can see we don’t have much space to work with. This means we have to choose our words carefully. The first line you see is the largest and is meant to grab the attention of the viewer as well as qualify them.

Right away the person knows what we’re trying to sell here. Private Construction Management services. Right below it, you’ll see a picture of a house that would look like our target customer. Under that, there’s a brief description that reinforces credibility by mentioning the years of experience with all kinds of projects.

Anyone looking into renovating their homes will identify with this flyer right away. We ask them the question “Have a project in Mind?”, always qualifying them. The next line tells them what we want them to do, which is to call for a consultation.

Door hangers work really well compared to regular flyers. For one, you won’t have to worry about your message getting lost in the mail. The direct mail route is often pricey and your ad will compete with priority mail like bills. On the other hand, everyone has one front door and your ad will command their full attention.

Flyer Headline Examples
The headline is arguably the most important part of the flyer. Some people spend the most of their time trying to choose the right image that’s going to catch the attention of the customer and dazzle them with their creativity. It sounds nice. It just isn’t the case.

The reality is that we have 1 second to catch the attention of the person we’re trying to reach. We have to talk about what THEY want as opposed to what we’re offering. In the example above, Private Construction Management might not be an ideal headline. Instead, we could’ve said something along the lines of “Got a Construction Project in Mind?”.

It might or might not get a good reception. The key is to grab attention and eliminate anyone who wouldn’t buy from us while selecting those that would. We could write a whole book on choosing the right headline but adhering to some guidelines should put you on the right track. The following are some good headline examples for flyers or for any ads in general.

How-to Headline: People like to learn and the how-to headline is found everywhere. How to hire a good construction management company. How to make a million bucks in 20 min. You’ve seen it before. It works.

Question Headline: Just like the one suggested above. Asking a question engages the reader and causes them to answer it subliminally or consciously. Either way, we’ve got them communicating with us just through the headline.

Testimonial: Testimonials are great anywhere. They reinforce your brand and its authority. No one wants to buy from the new guy on the block. They want someone tried and tested.

Crazy Offer: A crazy offer can go a long way. A really long way. You should always have a crazy offer on your flyer regardless. If its good enough, it should be the biggest and first thing they see.

Choosing the Best Image for Flyers
As we said previously, finding the perfect image for your flyer isn’t as important as some people might think. A funny or creative image will get a positive response, but it won’t necessarily get us the exact response that’ll bring us sales.

Our picture should flow well without our headline and service. If we’re advertising for a taekwondo school, you might use a picture of children wearing their G.I uniforms.

The Elevator Pitch
Flyers have limited amounts of space for words and pictures. We want to get in as much as we NEED to, not as much as we CAN. This is where a lot of people go wrong. They design their flyer to include every single detailed explanation of what they do.

You should remember that the flyer shouldn’t serve as an alternative to your website. Your website is where your customers will go if they want a more in-depth understanding of your company and services/products.

The next section you should include in your flyer is a short description of what you do and why they should choose you. In short, it’s a small elevator pitch about your company.

“We manage construction projects for homeowners and have been doing it for over 20 years”. Simple, yet effective. At this point, we have a headline, a photo, and a small elevator pitch that’s going to help us land the knockout punch.

How to make a good flyer or offer
How to make a good flyer is based on the offer you give. An amazing offer has a time limit and simply cannot be passed by. These flyers receive upwards of 8-10% success rate. You really must be able to give tremendous value, or you won’t get too many replies.

A simple flyer with no offer can expect a 1% conversion rate. This means that we’ll turn 1% of the people that see our flyers into paying customers. You send out 10,000 and you get back 100 customers. Pretty simple stuff.

If you put a great offer, you can see 800-1000 customers out of 10,000 flyers. Suddenly, it makes a lot of sense to give away a great offer. Restaurants, for example, would benefit greatly by offering a free appetizer. They might lose out on some short-term profit but they’ll win in the long term.

Strategizing a Flyer Campaign
A good design is useless without a good strategy for distribution. We know flyer advertising is a numbers game and so we have to choose our target customers carefully. A restaurant might benefit better from delivering to homes instead of street promotion. That isn’t to say that a restaurant shouldn’t use street promotion as part of their campaign. However, if you don’t have enough foot traffic near your restaurant to justify it, you’re better off just targeting the homes in the neighborhood.

These customers are going to be your loyal regulars. The cost of acquiring one of them is inconsequential to the value that they’ll bring as a lifetime customer. For homes, door hangers work best. The reason is that other flyers have to be stuffed in other places near the home. They might be stuck on the mailbox or squeezed between the door frame. On the other hand, a door hanger is going on the doorknob. Basically, to get into their home they’re going to take it off the door and they’ll look at it for about a second.

They should be able to see exactly what you’re offering, how much, and what they have to do to redeem the offer. For example, you’re advertising a pizza restaurant. A really good flyer for this type of strategy would be “Get a free pizza slice with an order of a pizza and a soda”. The customer picks up the flyer and sees that they’re getting a free pizza slice and all they have to do is to go buy 1 and a soda.

Do Your Research

If you’re going abroad, do some research on the country before you go. Make sure you have any vaccinations you may need and all the correct documents, and are familiar with the laws of the country. It’s also a good idea to keep up to date with any political disturbances to avoid dangerous situations.

Electronics

You can never be too careful when using electronics. If you’re working whilst travelling, ensure you have arranged a data plan before you leave so you don’t have to use open Wi-Fi connections – these are not always secure and could result in data loss for your company. It’s also not a great idea to use public computers as again these are usually pretty simple to hack.

At the Hotel

One of the first things you should do when you get to the hotel, is check that there is security available 24/7 – available by phone and there should also be a patrol. You should also always leave the “do not disturb” sign on your door to stop anyone from coming in, and only answer the door if you are expecting someone. If you have booked the hotel independently, make sure your company know where you’re staying.

Business Travel Security

Business travel security is available; this can be especially useful if you’re going to a high-risk area or carrying out important work that you could be targeted for. They can provide risk assessment and management, travel training and close protection amongst other things. If you work for a company, you could suggest they look into this for all staff to reduce the risk of any issues and make staff more comfortable with travelling for work.

Avoiding any threats to yourself and your work should be your biggest concern when travelling. By taking small precautions you’ll make your trip run smoothly and ensure your security, leaving you to focus on the work at hand and come home safely.