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Archive for Marketing Your Business

10 No-No Words You Should Never Use in Marketing

by Susan Payton
April 15th, 2013

Consider what turns you off when it comes to sales or marketing. Probably you have certain types of people that drive you crazy when they try to sell to you. For me, it’s that salesperson who is pushy, slick, and doesn’t listen. But what about words? Have you ever realized that there are certain words that are overdone and ineffective when it comes to marketing?

Here’s the “what NOT to say” list of words for your marketing campaign.

1. Guru

If you work on personally branding yourself, please avoid the word “guru” at all costs. There are simply too many gurus out there for anyone to believe that you are one. Even if in fact, you are one. There are other words to express that you’re an expert and well-informed in your field. Continue reading “10 No-No Words You Should Never Use in Marketing” »

Categories Marketing Mondays, Marketing Your Business
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Boost Your Marketing Campaigns by Connecting Social With Email

by CorpNet
April 4th, 2013

This is a guest post from Melissa Nolan.

Consumers are relying more heavily on apps and social networks for up-to-date information and promotions in real-time, which means traditional email marketing strategies are becoming obsolete. A strong social networking presence must be a part of a business’s model because that’s where customers and potential leads are. Facebook and Twitter users expect to see favorite brands and businesses that meet their needs on their social platforms. Does that mean you should abandon direct-email marketing altogether? Not necessarily. Continue to efficiently utilize every outlet, but build successful campaigns by connecting social media, mobile and apps with inboxes. Continue reading “Boost Your Marketing Campaigns by Connecting Social With Email” »

Categories Marketing Your Business
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7 Ways to Convince Customers to Love You

by NellieAkalp
April 1st, 2013

By: sophie

Most businesses love attracting new customers; they love making sales; and they love repeat sales from loyal customers. However, convincing a customer to love your business is about service, not sales.

Studies show that it’s more expensive to acquire a brand new customer than it is to generate business from an existing one. Therefore, it makes good business sense to focus on keeping your current customers happy. I think it goes even deeper than that. Customers link you to why you wanted to start a business in the first place.

If you want your customers to start loving you, here are seven tips. And now is a great time to get started.

1. Be yourself
Customers form emotional connections with people, not companies, mission statements, or press releases. That’s why if you want customers to love your business, you’ll have to be ready to reveal the people and personalities behind it. Let your customers love you, by telling them more about you…whether it’s on your blog or while talking to a customer on the phone. Continue reading “7 Ways to Convince Customers to Love You” »

Categories Marketing Your Business
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10 Steps to Take in Guest Blogging

by Anita Campbell
March 27th, 2013

Guest blogging is a great way to get your brand name in front of more potential customers. Essentially, you’re writing content for someone else’s blog, with the benefit of having your bio at the bottom of the post, including a link back to your site.

While this seems simple enough, there are steps to take to ensure success and help you target the best blogs to write for.

Step 1: Do Research
Using the scatter shot approach to guest blogging won’t help you. It’s better to invest time in finding those blogs that speak to your audience. If you’re in small business services, find blogs that speak to a small business audience.

Create a spreadsheet to collect data, and record the blog name and URL, as well as contact person and email, and any guidelines the site might have for guest bloggers. Continue reading “10 Steps to Take in Guest Blogging” »

Categories Marketing Your Business
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How to Choose a Promotional Product that Stands out from the Crowd

by CorpNet
March 22nd, 2013

This is a guest post from Vincent Clarke.

As an online business owner, it’s easy to forget or ignore offline marketing strategies in favor of search engine optimization and social media outreach. At the same time, you understand better than anyone that in order to guarantee that your brand is recognized well above all others, you have to go that extra mile to stand out from the crowd.

So how do you add a little extra spice to your campaign with so many of your competitors copying every online marketing strategy you dish out? Get offline! The biggest mistake online businesses make nowadays is to assume that the only way you can effectively spread word about your website is through the internet. Yet there are dozens of traditional, yet highly effective offline marketing techniques that will help your direct site traffic grow while strengthening your overall brand identity.

Promotional products are an excellent offline marketing tool. These items are imprinted with your company logo, brand name, slogan, contact information, and any other direct advertising message that you’d like to share with your clients. Here will share with you some of the benefits of different promotional products and how to match them with the business needs of your marketing campaign. Continue reading “How to Choose a Promotional Product that Stands out from the Crowd” »

Categories Marketing Your Business
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Run Your Business Like a Community

by Howard Greenstein
March 6th, 2013
community

community (Photo credit: planeta)

I attended two meetings about Community Managers this past week, and both got me thinking about how businesses always benefit from connecting with their customers like a community.

What is a community manager, you may ask? Tim McDonald of the Huffington Post Live likens it to being like a “magnet” that brings people toward your business. Community managers typically work on the social media and web presences of companies, helping guide conversation with a light hand and keep fans of the company engaged. If you could add in great friendly communicator, customer service maven, metrics fan and a desire to get everyone on board with your company’s brand – that would be a community manager. Sounds like a helpful role for someone who is starting a business.

At New York’s Social Media Club (which I run), a panel of community managers including McDonald, Ilana Kapan of Digitas, Edward Ford of Thompson Reuters, and Todd Olmstead of Mashable discussed their jobs and insights. (An excellent full summary of the meeting is at ProfNet Connect.)

I also attended the Community Manager UnConference, co-run by McDonald and the team at MyCMGR.com (My Community Manager), where I learned from some of the best in the industry about how community managers help grow business connections, positive feelings about brands, and customer retention. Continue reading “Run Your Business Like a Community” »

Categories Marketing Your Business, Social Media Strategy For Small Business
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10 Valentine’s Promotions Ideas for Your Small Business

by NellieAkalp
February 14th, 2013

In honor of Valentine’s Day, it’s a great opportunity for your small business to use it as a marketing strategy.

Here are 10 ideas to get you started.

1. Special “We Heart Our Customers” Discount

To show your appreciation to existing customers, give them a special deep discount. It should be more than you offer any potential customer, such as 50% off a single item. Continue reading “10 Valentine’s Promotions Ideas for Your Small Business” »

Categories Marketing Your Business
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6 Mistakes You Could be Making with your Company Blog

by NellieAkalp
February 1st, 2013

These days it seems like every business – from dentists to software companies – has a blog. However, just because everyone has a blog doesn’t mean that everyone is doing it right. Whether you’re just launching a blog for your business, or you’ve been blogging for awhile, it’s easy to be guilty of some of the most common business blogging mistakes.

For full disclosure, I’m not a social media or blogging expert. Far from it. I’m just a small business owner who truly embraces the unique opportunity that social media offers. I’ve been experimenting with our company blog for years and here are some of the lessons I have learned along the way. Continue reading “6 Mistakes You Could be Making with your Company Blog” »

Categories Marketing Your Business, Social Media Strategy For Small Business
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Why Google+ is Important for Small Businesses

by Howard Greenstein
January 31st, 2013

GPlus Circle FollowingSM.001A recent Wall Street Journal article states “There’s No Avoiding Google+.”  If you’re starting a business, especially a web-centric or local business, you should pay a bit of attention to Google+, and for some businesses, you should embrace it fully. It has the potential to increase your exposure to customers and improve your search ranking.

First, what is Google+? Simply put, it is a set of tools that is part of Google. Things that are connected to Google+ go right into the search engine and are data for the algorithms Google uses to determine if they should give your business as a result when someone does a search. The data from Google+ can make your shop show up better on Maps, Places, improve your results in Ads and in other Google products as well.

Who’s using Google+? If you want to review a place you’ve found via a Google search result, you need a Google Profile – and hey, you’re using Google+. Are you using an Android phone? You have a Gmail account linked to it, and that has a profile, which is also your personal Google+ profile. Using Gmail? You have a profile - here’s mine, add me to a circle. Your profile is part of the Google+ social network, which has characteristics similar to Facebook and Twitter. On Google Plus, you can follow people by putting them into Circles, which are like groups on Facebook or lists on Twitter. People don’t have to circle you back, but if they don’t you’ll only see their public post. Continue reading “Why Google+ is Important for Small Businesses” »

Categories Marketing Your Business, Social Media Strategy For Small Business
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Fourth Quarter Marketing Wrap-up

by Susan Payton
December 3rd, 2012

The year is almost over, and it’s time to evaluate how you did in your marketing efforts. If you started the year with a well-developed marketing strategy, chock full of tools like social media, PR and blogging, now is your chance to determine what worked and what didn’t.

Why You Should Analyze

It would certainly be easier to keep doing the same marketing activities you’ve been doing year after year, but you’d be wasting valuable time and effort in doing so. Instead, paying attention to which marketing tools brought you the best results, and which under-delivered can help you better tailor your marketing plan for 2013.

Technology is making marketing move at the speed of light, so what might have been working in January of this year might be less effective 12 months later. Likewise, there are always new marketing tools popping up, so now is a good time to choose a few of them to try out for next year.

How to Analyze Your Marketing Efforts

If you have Google Analytics or another analytics program embedded in your website (and you do, right??) it’s easy enough to see which websites sent traffic to your site. (In Google Analytics, look under Content, then Traffic Sources) You can look at this on a month-by-month comparison or the big picture from the entire year. Once you see how much (or how little) traffic each source has sent you, you can determine whether it’s worth it to keep using that marketing channel.

Finding New Marketing Tools

In running your business, it’s your job to constantly be on the lookout for new innovation that can help your company grow. That means paying attention to your industry as well as what your competitors are using, and being open to change.

Maybe you weren’t ready to try Google + at the start of the year because it was so new. Why not divert some marketing dollars in that direction for 2013? Here are a few other tools you should consider if you haven’t used them yet:

Gearing Up for Your 2013 Marketing Plan

You don’t have to create your marketing plan for next year just yet, but do review your plan for 2012 and make notes on what needs to be changed. Speak to your marketing team as well as your entire staff to get ideas for how to better connect to customers. What are they seeing in their work that might be applied in the plan? How can they get involved? The more you involve your staff in your marketing, the more successful it will be.

Getting ready for 2013? CorpNet can help you get off on the right foot with the appropriate business structure. We help entrepreneurs start a business by managing the business filings to incorporate a company. Whether you want to form an LLC, S-Corporation or other corporate entity, CorpNet can help you choose a business structure with a free business consultation.

Photo: s_falkow on Flickr

Categories Business Operations, Marketing Your Business
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