Successful Blog

A 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your New Business

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Jacob E. Dawson

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Building a new business is challenging, frustrating, exhilarating and rewarding. If you’re embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship, it will be the hardest yet most satisfying adventure you can imagine. You will have a million things to take care of on a daily basis, and a seemingly endless check-list of tasks you need to undertake in order to reach the success you’re striving for. In addition to discovering your customer’s pain-points and creating a great product to satisfy their needs, you’ll also need to take care of the books, understand the legal requirements and make sure you can keep your head above water as you approach profitability.

A 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your New Business

If that seems overwhelming, you can take a deep breath and relax. There are plenty of valuable guides for new business owners. in order to give you a helping hand, which is why we’ve put together a 5-point plan to help you differentiate yourself from competitors once you’ve entered the market with a new product.

  1. Embrace Your SmallnessEveryone has dreams of building a giant business that experiences hockey-stick growth and explodes onto the market. That’s fine, but one of the best ways to turn a weakness into a strength is to embrace it. Acknowledge the small size of your business in the early days and use it to your advantage. People love to root for the underdog, and will often support you and your business more eagerly than they would a larger, more established company.
  2. Pour Your Personality into the BrandIn addition to embracing your small size, you can also help to build a strong customer relationship by pouring a lot of your own personality into the business. Large corporations are renowned for feeling faceless in their customer communications, and this is a huge point of differentiation that you can use to your advantage. You can cleverly insert quirks and idiosyncrasies into your brand character, helping your business to feel unique, friendly and approachable.
  3. Encourage One-On-One ConversationsWhen you are establishing your new business in the marketplace, marketing and promotion are some of the most difficult parts to get right, especially when you have a very limited budget to work with. There are, however, a few ways to maximise what you have by utilizing the power of word-of-mouth, by finding your most passionate customers and lavishing them with attention. When you invite them into your world, share your business’s journey and give them access to unique insights & offers, you can turn a customer into an evangelist – someone who will passionately share your business with the world – maximizing your valuable marketing dollars in the process.
  4. Show Yourself as a ‘Hands-On’ ExpertIf you can’t compete with larger businesses pound-for-pound, you have to find other ways to outdo them. One of the best ways to do this is to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Write informative blog posts and ‘how-tos’, start finding forums and seminars that you can speak at, seek out public-relations opportunities where you can show your expertise through the media. Before long your customers will see you as an expert in your field, strengthening your business reputation, and enabling you to compete with larger, less hands-on competitors.
  5. Tell Your Personal StoryYou know that starting a business is one of the hardest journey’s that you can embark on, so why don’t you share the challenges you encounter with your customers? When they know much effort you put into offering them the best products and services possible they will become more attached to your brand and feel much more invested in your future success. Let them see the ups-and-downs and your willingness to share will be repaid with stronger customer relationships and, eventually, a successful business.

I hope that this 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your Business has given you some ideas and inspiration to help you to sharpen your new business and begin your journey towards success! What are your thoughts about these techniques, and which ones do you think that I’ve missed? Do you have any personal experience that you can share with us? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Author’s Bio:
Jacob E. Dawson writes for Delivery Hero, the best way to find local home delivery . Jacob E. Dawson is an entrepreneur, marketing and SEO / SEM expert with a passion for making the most of every day! You can follow him on Twitter as @jacobeddawson

 

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

How a Blog Contributes to Your Business Model in Crucial Ways

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Alex Summers

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Why Blogs Are Necessary for Small Businesses

If you have a business, you should have a blog. Period. This is because you need a way to communicate with customers at all times. A blog allows you to communicate product updates, allow customers to suggest new products or features and have a way to be visible at all times. Visibility is important when you are a small business.

Here are crucial ways a blog contributes to a business model:

A Blog Improves Sales

Having a blog allows you to sell more goods. This is because you can link your blog to the section of your site that sells your products. Customers can even find your blog without you having to do anything to attract that customer. Optimizing content for search engines will improve sales by pushing your blog higher on search engine results. Most people will click on the first or second result that appears.

You can get sales training online from many sales and business professionals through a quick online search.

A Blog Allows You to Interact With Others In Your Niche

You can connect with other niche bloggers who are writing about the same topics you are. A company that sells sports memorabilia would want to connect with other businesses that sell sports memorabilia. Having those connections makes it easier to improve sales because there are other businesses who could refer their customers to you. You may have something that their shop may not.

Perhaps you are a better option because you are closer to where a particular customer is located. You don’t get that referral, if you don’t connect to other businesses.

A Blow Allows Customers to Communicate With You

A good conversation on your blog can be great for SEO. Remember that there are usually 100 people reading your forum for every person who actually comments. Your blog could be where people learn more about your products or services. Make sure that you are offering an interactive experience for your customers. Give them good recommendations in an attempt to drive sales of certain items. Customers will generally follow your advice if it is sound enough.

Every small business needs a blog in order to survive online. It will allow you to be found by more people. It can get your referrals from other businesses that you connect with. Your blog can also be a great way to influence customers to buy certain goods or services that your company offers. Make sure that you are taking advantage of this wonderful tool that is available to your company.

Author’s Bio:
Alex is a blogger, freelance writer and recent college graduate. She currently performs market research for an online marketing firm when she is not contributing her own thoughts and observations to the online community.

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

6 Steps to a Business Blog that Attracts Customers

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How to Blog Series

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Marya Jan

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Small Business Owners Can Make a Blog a Customer Magnet

Do you have a business blog?

Or, do you feel like rolling your eyes when people tell you to get one?

Who reads a business blog anyway? Aren’t they places where business owners talk about their star employees, new products in the pipeline, latest on advertising efforts, and publish other bits and pieces of information that nobody cares about.

In other words, they publish incredibly boring stuff.

Well … not necessarily.

And it doesn’t have to be that way for you either.
Your blog can be a customer magnet.
Don’t you want to bring more customers to you?

6 Steps to a Business Blog that Attracts Customers

Here are six small steps you can take right now to ensure that you never go down that path – path that leads to boredom and ultimately abandon of your site. These are six steps to a small business blog that draws customers closer to you.

#1 Publish non-promotional content

The first thing you can do is stop promoting your products and services on your blog. Really, trust me on this. Your blog is not the place to that. Your website is, your online catalogue is, not your blog.

People don’t sign up to hear from you if all they are going to hear about your fabulous products – which no doubt, they are. People sign up because you post some interesting and engaging content that they don’t want to risk missing any of it.

For instance, I subscribe to my son’s speech pathologist’s business blog. Yes, she has one, and a fantastic one at that. (My son has Asperger’s Syndrome so he needs help with social skills and pragmatics.)

I have signed up to her blog because she routinely publishes stuff about what’s new in the world of ASD therapies. She recommends great resources, and what’s happening around town. She highlights successes of her other clients (with permission, of course). She tells parents quick tips that we can follow at home.

What a great blog she has where she publishes such useful content that people who can’t even afford her services now, sign up. And they might eventually, in future.

#2 Offer a freebie for email opt-in

Speaking of signing up, the whole purpose of blogging is to capture first time visitors email addresses straightaway, before they leave your site and forget all about you.

It really helps if you offer them some incentive – an ethical bribe if you may. My son’s speechie has got a 7 page report on how to find the right speech therapist for your child and when to do it. Indirectly plugging her service? I don’t really care, the tips are solid.

Think about if, if you have a child who doesn’t speak at age 3, would you not opt-in for information from a credible source?

Offer a freebie, and turn your blog into a lead generation machine. Psst … that’s the why you are blogging anyway.

#3 Publish content regularly

This is a topic of hot debate. But before you start freaking out, understand that your business blog is different from those huge blogs that everybody on the planet seems to follow.

Often, they have teams producing content for them, and either they are news sites masquerading as blogs, or blogs who grew big over a period of time. The owner usually monetizes them by placing advertising on them do they need an infinite number of visitors and hits to their site. Hence, they often update multiple times a day.

Your blog is different; you can get away with updating once a week. That is what I do and it works for me.

#4 Make yourself human & position yourself as an expert

Are you a huge company or a small business? I am thinking the latter.

While you may not have a really corporate voice on your website, it will still pay to come across as a living, breathing human on your blog.

You get to engage with your readers, who could possibly be so impressed with you that they will eventually buy from you.

Even if you don’t, isn’t it a good feeling to show your human face and just chill?

Like Sonia Simone of Copyblogger says, create Know, Like and Trust on your site. Get people to know and like you by being approachable and talking about your company’s mission. Post content that will get them to trust you.

And let’s not forget that we only buy from people we know, like and trust.

#5 Give your blog an audit

If you already have a business blog, give it a cold, hard look. If this blog was written by somebody else, would you subscribe?

Is it easy to navigate or feel cluttered? Does it look professional in its appearance?

Think about what sort of content are you publishing. Think about the frequency and length. Really think about the headlines. Which brings us to our final point; writing to earn people’s attention.

#6 Write like an A-list blogger

And lastly, do you know why most business blogs stink?

It’s because they person doing blogging has no clue how to blog in the first place. Blogging is a genre in itself, and in order for you to get people interested in your content, you must do as the Romans do.

Make your posts screen friendly and easy to read. Make them scannable using subheadings, bullets, bold and numbered lists, in the body of the post. Refrain from using long paragraphs. Make them short to really break up the text.

Keep your posts short – aim for a length of 500 words. You can write that in an hour. Think of this time as an investment in your business. Or, if you can’t spare a single minute, hire a freelance blogger.

Author’s Bio:
Marya Jan is a proud content creator for Open Colleges, (an education provider with awesome business and writing courses. When she is not busy blogging for them, she can be found helping small business owners revamp their blog content at Writing Happiness.

Do You Have an SEO Game Plan for Your Small Business?

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Miguel Salcido

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SEO and ROI

With all that small business owners have to do on a daily basis, a thorough SEO game plan can often fall by the wayside.

In fact, some business owners end up neglecting SEO altogether, leaving them with missed opportunities for traffic back to their sites and a better return on investment (ROI). Think about it, your small business could very easily be missing out on free traffic, from qualified leads, who are interested in your products and services.

As a small business owner, do you feel you have a strong SEO game plan in place, an average one or you’re simply missing the boat when it comes to SEO?

Do You Have an SEO Game Plan for Your Small Business?

Get Started
BigStock: Get Started!

In the event you find yourself in the latter category, take some time now before you fall further behind to see how you can get on the boat and sail towards better returns.

Among the advantages for your business having a solid SEO presence include:

  • Increasing sales through qualified business leads from search engines;
  • Better Web site performance and more traffic showcasing your brand awareness;
  • Added credibility and legitimacy for your brand;
  • Tie in to specific keywords that consumers will utilize to come to your site.

In taking a look at some of the above-mentioned items, keep in mind that your goal at the end of the day is to drive traffic to your site, preferably traffic that is interested in purchasing from your business. With the right SEO game plan, you are able to gain the attention of top business prospects, increasing the chances of a sale.

Another factor to keep in mind is that you are better served putting out products and services based on the keyword search terms that led visitors to your site in the first place.

Okay, doing what was just mentioned above makes sense, right? In order to successfully do that, you need to be recording and analyzing your SEO metrics.

Make sure you are able to see via statistics where you have a competitive edge over the competition and where you need to increase your efforts. Find the keywords that rank best for you in leading traffic back to your site, stay on top of the ones that are working, and look to improve upon other terms that need a little boost.

Lastly, many small business owners are working on tight budgets to begin with, so they go back-and-forth as to whether or not they should hire someone for in-house SEO or outsource it.


Remember that the most important question to answer is discovering how many people are searching for what you sell.

If you are a tech-savvy business owner or have a tight budget, you may look to do SEO efforts on your own or contract them out. If you have more of a budget to work with, consider hiring a company that specializes in delivering SEO results to small businesses.

At the end of the day, your small business wants and needs a steady stream of referrals coming to your site with the potential to buy.

When deployed properly, SEO marketing can be a very cost-effective means by which the small business owner drives quality traffic to their site, traffic that can very well lead to a purchase.

Author’s Bio:
Author , held executive positions with large search marketing agencies over the years and now runs an SEO consulting services agency and loves fielding questions over at his organic SEO blog so feel free to reach out to him there.

Thank you, Miguel. Understanding SEO as part of social business is so important.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Make Affiliate Marketing Work for Your Business

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Tara Hornor

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Many affiliate marketing programs claim users can make thousands of dollars a month by doing nothing. Sure, there are a few big-time marketers and businesses that have made wads of cash through affiliate marketing, but this is the exception. Many programs claim marketing through affiliate programs are a piece of cake, but for every affiliate marketing success, thousands of businesses have failed to make a dime.

Is Affiliate Marketing Right for Your Business?

Most businesses engage affiliate marketers as a strategy to extend their reach. To attract quality affiliates you’ll need to offer high commissions on sales, but this can cut deeply into your profits. Depending upon your margins, your business may be able to support affiliates or you may find it more effective to market on your own.

If you can’t support affiliates, you might consider performing the affiliate marketing role on your own. If you have a strong market or a strong marketing background and your firm has the capabilities, find other products and services that you can market alongside yours. This is a perfectly acceptable affiliate marketing arrangement that benefits you, your customers, and the other companies involved. Some companies actually start out by marketing affiliate products to build a market while they’re still working on their own product line to offer.

You may consider this if you find that you cannot currently create these extra products and services your customers want. For example, you may want to sell insurance for your products. Instead of self-insuring, you could simply sell insurance as an affiliate, make a little money, and everybody wins.

How to Make Affiliate Marketing Work

Not every business can effectively use affiliate marketing. If no one in your company can focus efforts entirely on affiliate marketing for a couple of days a week, maybe affiliate marketing programs aren’t for you. Affiliate marketing isn’t about sitting back and collecting money. It does involve work – and lots of it. Here are a few tips for success in affiliate marketing:

  • Send massive amounts of traffic to affiliate websites.
  • Associate with reputable affiliate programs only.
  • Look for programs that pay high commission rates.
  • Look for programs with products you’d want to buy.
  • Create relevant content for affiliate programs.

Relevant Content is Essential to Affiliate Marketing Success

Relevant content is vital to the success of any affiliate marketing plan. Choose affiliate marketing programs in line with the type of content offered. For instance, if the content on a site is about dogs, visitors would not be drawn to click affiliate links to chocolate or shoes. Neither is relevant or related to the subject that attracted the visitors.

Also, blend affiliate program links with content but not deceptively. The affiliate links should be in keeping with the general flow of a page. Otherwise, affiliate links will appear out of place. But don’t forget you can use affiliate marketing with more than a link-based program. Learn to upsell other products and services that may be of benefit that you market as an affiliate.

Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing

Before starting out with affiliate programs, it is essential to read up and glean from the success of others. There is a great deal of information online about affiliate programs. Don’t be taken in by get rich quick books or blogs promising millions. Steer clear of outrageous claims and put your nose to the grindstone. Scour the web for reliable resources and test different programs.

Some types of affiliate programs are effective for some sites, while other programs work better for other types of sites. Experimentation is necessary to find your sweet spot. Don’t expect to be an overnight success. It takes knowledge, time, and effort to succeed with affiliate marketing programs. Succeeding with affiliate marketing can be an exercise in trial and error, but it can be worth it in the end.

Author’s Bio:
Tara Hornor writes about marketing, advertising, branding, web and graphic design, and desktop publishing for PrintPlace.com a company that offers online printing for print marketing media. Find her on Twitter as @TaraHornor .

 

Sun Tzu and the Art of Strategic Blogging

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Mark Blasini

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As any content creator knows, creating and maintaining a successful, engaging blog is a huge challenge. Bloggers are constantly plagued by the question: “How do I attract more readers and keep them coming back?” The answer to this question may lie in a two thousand year old text on military strategy — The Art of War, by the ancient military general Sun Tzu.

Sun Tzu and the Art of Strategic Blogging

Most people are familiar with Sun Tzu and his principles of deception and strategy. Many leaders, from Napoleon to Patton to top CEO’s in the country, use his wisdom to create successful empires. However, what most people don’t know is that these same principles lend great insights into how to create and maintain a successful blog. These principles make up what I call “strategic blogging.” I list them as follows:

  1. Follow your Way. For Sun Tzu, a strong general inspires his troops by leading them towards a single mission or vision — a spiritual goal that makes the fighting and hardships they must endure meaningful. This vision is what Sun Tzu calls “the Way.” Likewise, as a strategic blogger, you too must have a unique vision for your blog. What is it specifically that you want to accomplish with your readers? Do you want to inspire them? Educate them? Change their thinking or lifestyle? Whatever your vision is, the Way of your blog should always be geared towards helping readers create a better life for themselves.
  2. Know your audience and yourself. Sun Tzu writes: “Know your enemy and yourself and victory will be certain.” As a strategic blogger, you need to know who your audience is, what their needs are, and how you can best serve them. Are you writing for artists? Other bloggers? Entrepreneurs? Marketers? What information are they specifically looking for? What writing style are you strongest at (informative, personal, funny, reflective, etc.)? Find your natural style, find topics that your readers will be interested in, and go blog. Simple, yet direct.
  3. Avoid the strong, attack the weak. Sun Tzu says: “Just as the flow of water avoids high ground and rushes to the lowest point, so on the path to victory avoid the enemy’s strong points and strike where he is weak.” As a blogger, your content should be directed at hitting the audience where they are weakest — their uncertainty. In other words, it’s pointless to try to make someone aware of something that he or she already accepts as true — just as it’s equally pointless to try to convince someone of something he or she is dead against. Your best bet is to focus your message on what your audience is uncertain or neutral about.
    For example, let’s say you’re an environmentalist blogger and you want to blog about different ways and reasons for going green. While most people agree that going green is good for the environment, they aren’t willing to disrupt their lives in order to do so. So providing information from the standpoint of how going green will “save” the environment will most likely not be effective. Instead, you must strike where people are weak: their self-interest. Most people know that going green is good, but what they don’t know is how going green will benefit them. Fortunately, going green is more a matter not of what you do, but of what you don’t do, or stop doing. The focus of the blog, then, could be showing people ways in which eliminating pollution-creating behavior (e.g. using the car, running the electricity, etc.) actually saves them money. This fulfills your goal of educating people while giving your audience a clear, strong benefit.
  4. Use deception. Let’s face it: your goals and your audience’s goals, at some point, diverge. Your audience wants to be either educated or entertained. You want more subscribers (or e-book sales, or speaking opportunities, etc.). Thus, in order to achieve your goals, you have to practice deception. As Sun Tzu tells us, “Deception is the Way of warfare.” Deception doesn’t mean “lying.” As a blogger, you should always be honest with your followers. This is how you build trust, rapport, and long-term relationships. Deception simply means hiding your objectives in such a way that you lure your target to help you achieve them.
    For example, in the content marketing world, we use the 80/20 rule when it comes to providing content vs. selling: you should do 80% content, 20% selling. This means that only after you have provided valuable content should you provide a message concerning how your audience, by subscribing/purchasing/contacting, can better be helped. At the end of relevant posts, you should include a italicized message stating how you can help your audience further: “Want to know better ways to save money by going green? Purchase my new e-book…” Remember, though: only sell if you’ve provided valuable content. Your content is what is going to lure your audience — not your selling.

While these principles are by no means the end-all, be-all of strategic blogging, if you follow them consistently, I promise you will achieve incredible results. Now go out and establish your blogging empire!

Author’s Bio:
Mark Blasini writes about music, art, and creativity at www.DarkLion.com. He is the author of the free e-book Light the Fire: Six Simple Principles for Creating Art That Inspires, downloadable if you subscribe to his site. You can find him on Twitter as @TheProfMusic.