Successful Blog

Helpful Tips for Business Blogging

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Upon getting started in an online marketing campaign one of the first considerations is the targeted audience. What does the business provide a service or a product?

Therefore, we must find out what the keywords are that potential customers use when searching the internet for similar products or services. Four general categories provide some insight.

They are the following, city + service, zip code + service, local terminology + service and local landmarks + service. Naturally, replacing the service with the product gives us similar results.

It All Starts with the Best Keywords

Keyword searches are what drive a search engine to find the items queried by a user. Thus having knowledge of the most common associated with your product or service is pertinent when beginning an online marketing scheme.

Now there are other factors to consider in addition, however, using a technique called “search engine optimization” of SEO is what will enable a search engine to find and index your webpage in the top ten to twenty search results. If you are running a local business, you must understand what and how the competition is going about the same thing online as you are attempting.

Keywords should be used on all stages of your blogging strategy. From domain naming to content ideation, planning and writing.

Make A Successful SEO Campaign

Business blogging can be a success if a creative and focused SEO campaign is part of the design for a marketing strategy. One term to become familiar with is NAP or “name, address, and phone number,” it is essential that whenever this information is entered it is consistent.

The reason is when Google searches it is looking for the NAP listed for other businesses that are relevant to the one queried ranked by popularity.

One way to build popularity is by creating “backlinks” these are having a link to your webpage located on another similar site. This provides the search engine a reference and thus turns your site up in the queries. Using email marketing is another great way to make the most of your business blogging efforts.

Keep Updated

Along with keeping things like the NAP consistent, your other business data needs the same attention to detail when it comes to business blogging. This is important when optimizing for the local search engines like Localeze, Infogroup, D&B, and Acxiom. This is why webpage optimization is an important part of online marketing.

By staying up to date on any changes that occur with your business your webpage will never lose its place. There are services that offer help with SEO, however there are plenty of online articles that offer help in addition. The suggestions presented in these articles turns out to be quite useful and relevant for the purpose of optimization.

Nevertheless, business blogging is a full time endeavor and should be part of any marketing scheme for improving visibility and industry credibility. Become the expert in your field and promote your business through networking with other bloggers in similar businesses.

Naturally, becoming familiar with SEO techniques is the wisest choice when beginning a blog. Just like finding your targeted audience, some typical factors for SEO are domain authority, site structure, keyword use and the amount of backlinks in addition, quality of the backlinks.

Image: Pixabay

How to Boost Your Product Sales

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Selling online is getting more and more challenging as the web gets too crowded with businesses and entrepreneurs.

How to sell more and boost your ROI?

Here are six sales strategies you can use to get started:

1. Provide a Short Product Demo

Showing a prospective customer how your product works by using a demo can improve your sales quickly.

A good demo lets a potential customer see how your product provides a solution to their problems.

It’s important to showcase how your product addresses the challenges faced by your customers. It’s essential not just to show features but to demonstrate the ways your product can make them more efficient or increase profits.

Prospects aren’t interested in a bunch of features if they won’t help them reach their business goals.

2. Use Storytelling

Humans have been enjoying and telling stories for thousands of years. Incorporating this method into your sales strategy can gain the interest of a potential customer on a deeper level.

You can utilize this technique at every stage of your sales funnel. It might include explaining the features of your product and highlighting how you solved the problems of one of your customers by utilizing one or more of the specific elements.

If your prospects present objections, use storytelling to show them how previous customers had the same reservations before using your product.

3. Make Your Sales Pitch Exciting

In some situations, you may need to provide an effective sales pitch that’s both exciting and informative. This sale strategy requires confidence and the ability to demonstrate your expertise.

It’s essential to quickly let your prospect now that you understand their problems and can provide the solution to their business that helps them quickly and efficiently. This strategy requires researching up front so that you can immediately take control of the conversation.

4. Listening to Your Prospects by Using Revenue Intelligence

If you frequently get some type of pushback from a prospect, it can help to listen to them. Using revenue intelligence provides this by tapping into the power of AI.

Utilizing this strategy allows you to capture customer interactions such as email, face-to-face meetings, video interaction and phone calls. The system delivers insights dealing with topics, messaging and competitors, which are all current data and facts you can use to help them.

Sales and marketing have changed dramatically by using AI. It cuts out the noise and understands what’s being said, which allows you to focus on the essential factors.

For bigger companies, it is essential to set up a reliable contact center because all those interactions should be managed effectively.

5. Always Follow Up Until You Get an Answer

It can take time for some customers to make a final decision. You have to remember that they have a business to run, and buying a product from you is probably not their number one priority.

If you’ve given them your time and let them think about it, it’s essential to follow up and get a response. Until you receive a definitive answer, you should continue to perform this sale strategy — no matter how long it takes for them to tell you yes or no.

When using email follow-ups, make sure to use your business email address as this creates brand awareness. You will need to use your own domain name for that.

6. Highlight Both Risks and Opportunities

Individuals who are selling a product will often only focus on the benefits and quick results that can be achieved. In some cases, your product may provide more solutions than a prospect needs.

Rather than having a customer hit a speed bump immediately after selling them your product, it’s best if you highlight the risks as well. Some of the features of your product may be highly beneficial when used, but your prospect may not have implemented this factor. Letting them know why the future is essential by sharing other experiences via case studies can help.

By looking at your sales team and seeing how these sales strategies relate, you can choose one or more of them to assist with your process.

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How to Humanize Your Brand

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Have you ever had an amazing experience with a company and taken right to social media to express your feelings? What about a not so great experience? If you have, what were your expectations of the people behind the brand’s social media accounts?

With technology platforms on the rise, it is important to humanize companies and brand messages. It is necessary to make companies personable to foster good relations and trust, and even to drive engagement and sales. Companies also need to communicate well online because it helps people understand what they do and what they stand for, as well as stave off miscommunication and misunderstandings.

Nielson’s report estimates that 33% of users prefer to contact brands using social media as opposed to using the phone. With all of the stressors of online customer service, it is important to improve service by humanizing and communicating the brand message online.

Consumers are more likely to identify with a brand that has values in alignment with their own, and this connection will make a customer more likely to engage with the brand on an ongoing basis.

So, how can you improve online customer service by humanizing and communicating your brand message?

Lose Anonymity

A great way to help customers see a company as a personable entity, and less as a corporate business, is by personifying it and giving it a face. It also helps to garner publicity by using a company’s personality. 

It all starts with the name. Find a domain name that represents your brand and creates niche associations.

Showing personality that stands for the brand message helps to authenticate a company and increase perceived transparency, leading to customer trust and improved service. Having an authentic brand is also one of the strongest ranking factors, according to UR Digital, so being authentic will likely improve your organic search visibility as well!

Businesses can emulate personality and create brand personas by doing some of the following:

  • Feature real-life employees or customers on websites or advertisements
  • Post photos of the human elements of the business, from candid photos on the job to snapshots from employee functions
  • Publish articles and other literature from the company’s employees on a blog or by guest blogging
  • Host and/or give talks sponsored by the company that pertain to the company’s area of expertise
  • Add a phone support! Even small businesses can now afford phone support with solutions like Cloud PBX.

Stay Active on Social Media Accounts

Upkeep of social media accounts is extremely important in maintaining a presence online, with 63% of millennials staying updated on companies through social networks (Leaderswest Digital Marketing Journal study).

Keeping up on accounts not only establishes the company’s existence and innovation, but also helps to stand as evidence of what the company does, promotes, and is involved in. Up-to-date accounts show the public that the company itself is online and paying attention, and shows the consumer the company is more likely to be responsive to any comments or concerns that they may have.

Some ways that a company can work on customer service via social media accounts include:

  • Being responsive and have a quick turnaround time for comments, questions, and complaints
  • Paying attention to what is being said about the company, and other companies in the industry
  • Being interactive through new postings, trend followings, and consumer engagement
  • Partaking in active listening, admitting mistakes and sharing apologies, and showing implementation of customer suggestions

“Over” Communicate

To improve your customer communication, it is a good idea to do what may seem to be over communication. Take time to ask yourself some of the following: Is your brand message clearly stated? Are there more than adequate ways for customers to contact you? Is your message expressed in terms that are easily understood?

Businesses can improve on communication by taking some of these things into account:

  • Blatantly stated brand messages, or easily accessible mission and value statements
  • Easy to understand language and tone (in fact, a study from Carnegie Melon showed that most presidential candidates speak at a 6th-8th-grade education level)
  • Regular check-ins with customers
  • Phone, chat, email, and other communication support availability and offerings at all times

Research Your Current Brand’s Sentiment

What do people think of you and your brand? Which associations does it currently trigger?

Text Optimizer helps you find answers to all those questions by searching for your brand name in Google and analyzing search snippets that show up for that search.

Here’s how semantic search works if you are curious!

Cater to the Audience

Showing interest in the audience is an important part of good communication with consumers because it often cultivates further engagement.

By incorporating and inviting feedback from customers, it not only allows for businesses to assess their target audience, but it also lets the audience feel included and important. In addition, adding content that the audience is interested in helps the audience see the company as a more human entity with a shared interest, something that will encourage the audience to take a liking to the company.

Companies can cater to the audience in many ways, such as:

  • Posting things for enjoyment, not simply promotion of the brand
  • Using consumer generated or created content
  • Hosting audience involvement initiatives such as social media campaign competitions or giveaways
  • Sharing, liking, or re-tweeting pertinent customer mentions or tags

Cultivating Communication and Humanization Habits

Taking the first steps towards brand humanization and communication is no doubt important, but it is also imperative to continue the routine of good communication with customers.

Maintaining open lines of communication with consumers is a great way to constantly improve upon the service being offered, it enables businesses to hear how customers are feeling and adjust practices accordingly.

By taking customer thoughts and feelings into consideration, customers and businesses can foster positive and long-term relationships, which culminate into giving customers the service they want.

Build a Foundation that Will Grow with You

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Like love, the course of running a successful business never did run smoothly.

Chalk it up to the sheer number of variables – on both a macro and a micro level – that a business has to deal with. Regardless of how much time and effort you pour into planning things out, success is never going to be linear. Instead, it’s dotted with peaks and troughs, twists and turns. And those peaks and troughs can seem magnified unless your business is agile and flexible enough to handle change with aplomb.

That flexibility and agility is rarely a happy accident, but rather the result of hiring a freelance risk management consultant and a concerted effort to build a foundation that is able to adapt as circumstances change and your business grows.

Here are three essential skills you’ll need to ensure your foundation is one that can grow as your business does.

Take your brand identity seriously

Your brand is your biggest asset. Creating a recognizable brand identity is key to everything: Rankings, conversions and sales.

The first step is investing time and effort into finding a name that sticks in mind, creates niche associations and is fun to brand. From there create a cool logo, color scheme and design. This company name generator will help with all of that:

Learn how to build the right team

We all know that finding the right talent is a crucial aspect of building a successful business. However, when you’re starting out and don’t have the resources and skills of an immense HR department at your disposal, it can be difficult to know how to find – and retain – the best of the best.

One thing that tends to trip up small or new businesses is the belief that the only way to attract top talent is with top dollars – something that your business just might not have yet. However, a survey by Flexjobs found that, of the 1500 people surveyed, 20% of those would be willing to take a 10% pay cut in favor of flexibility in working conditions, and 22% would be willing to forego health benefits.

Ultimately, building a great team doesn’t mean hiring those with the most prestigious qualifications, or spending big on salaries. Instead, place your energies into two areas: building flexibility into the roles you create so you can be sure to attract great talent, and hiring staff who are a good personality and culture fit. Adopt a virtual phone system to keep your team always connected, even if they are on the move. Use collaboration platforms to foster knowledge exchange.

Learn to compartmentalize

In the early days of your business, you’re probably going to be wearing a lot of hats. Depending on the nature and scope of your business, you may be salesperson, bookkeeper, marketing manager, customer service rep and director, all at once. And when you’re performing multiple roles at once, it can be hard to separate them out once the time comes to hire help.

What you need to do is compartmentalize. For each role you’re performing, determine the core activities and tasks that define that role. As your business grows, you’ll add more and more tasks to that list, which will make writing position descriptions when you’re ready to hire staff infinitely easier.

This advice also comes in handy when you, inevitably, need to work on separating your work and your personal life. If you’re juggling, say, being a parent and running your own business, you may want to take the time to write out the tasks you perform as a parent, and those you perform as a business owner. That way, you can assess whether you’re focusing on the right things at the right time.

Learn to document your processes

In almost all fledgling businesses, there’s a great deal of tacit knowledge – that is, information, processes or procedures that are undocumented. For example, you may know how to update your website, or change the outgoing voicemail message, or which suppliers can deliver at short notice.

Relying on tacit knowledge, however, leaves your business vulnerable. The director of a company I used to work for was inordinately fond of asking his employees, ‘What if you get hit by a bus tomorrow? Will anyone know how to do your job?’

It’s a valid – if morbid – point

Documenting processes, while time-consuming and frankly a little dull, is crucial to the success of your business. Keeping in-depth, up-to-date documentation on processes and procedures (you can find an easy 10-step method for documentation here) makes coping with change and growth a far less stressful experience.

It also means that, when things go wrong, you can easily backtrack and ascertain where things went wrong.

Image: Pixabay

Lay the Best Foundation for Your Business

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Starting a new business is both exciting and daunting at the same time. Any budding entrepreneur will likely be full of energy at the beginning and at the same time, scared of any possible pitfalls.

It is an emotional time and the wave of energy and determination must be directed towards productivity.

The first 100 days of your new business, commencing on the day you commit yourself to turn that wonderful idea of yours to a reality, need to be spent wisely on tasks that would eventually be your basis of reference for the next months and years to come.

It is therefore necessary and vital that you do the steps correctly and timely to give yourself a head start and get the ball and momentum rolling.

Here are some guidelines on what to do once you have commitment to bring that bright idea of yours into a money making venture.

Create a Business Plan

You may think yourself as a genius but it is still important to write the things down associated with your business idea and formulate a plan . Tackle the basics first, figure out your core business, your competitive advantage, narrow your target market, sort out a general marketing plan, work on the finances.

Seek a second opinion from a trusted friend or a business mentor once you’ve made a plan and be open to their insights. In the course of writing down your thoughts, you’ll discover the philosophy you want to adopt when doing your business. Perhaps you can write that down into a mission vision statement.

A good plan may just be the key to your success so check and review your plan very well, take your time. It is better not to rush this part as the opposite may cause you trouble in the long run. Use this time to think about the organizational chart as well.

And once your business has started, it is wise to refer to the original plan once in a while to assure you are on the right track. And should you need to revise some items due to different market conditions and other factors.

Select a Good Company Name

At this modern times, not only should you make your business name unique and catchy. You also need to consider a matching domain name and whether it is still available.

Likewise, the email addresses to use which normally bears the business name too. All these online labeling should not be too long or complicated.

And since most businesses nowadays need an online presence in order to thrive, you need to submit your name to Google to index your website. Then there are business cards, brochures and invoices which may require a logo.

That is why the right company name must me chosen as a lot relies on it. You can refer to your business plan for inspiration.

Register Your Business

To formally mark the first step of probably the most important project in your life, register your business at to the proper government department.

Gather all the requirements to guarantee that your work is legit and is open for business. Once registered, you are able to casually market your business to friends and family.

And hopefully they will spread the word that will reach potential customers who may just give you a call soon and just in time when you are all settled down and ready.

If you are into local business, make sure to verify your business with Google Local, Bing Local as well as most important local directories like Yelp and DirJournal. This will ensure your business will be visible to your customers on maps as well as drive traffic to your site.

You don’t have to go local, of course. Thanks to the Internet and Cloud PBX, any business can go global.

Determine the Type of Business

With a business plan at hand, you can determine what type of business will work best. You can opt for a sole trading or a partnership depending on the situation you are in. Picking the right structure will impact the way you do business.

So read up on the difference, advantages and disadvantages of each. Know what are the legal repercussions and what extra work or insurance you may need to take as a result of your choice.

When in doubt, consult a business adviser or ask a local government department for further information. You cannot afford to miss out any important details.

Set up the Foundation

What’s your initial investment is going to be?

Common startup costs include:

  • Incorporation fees: Under $300
  • Marketing: 0% to 10% of total budget
  • Website: About $40 per month
  • Insurance: An average of $1,200 per year
  • Taxes: Variable, but 21% corporate tax rate

You may be able to save here and there. For example, you can save money by hiring a digital marketing company that’s located outside of the United States.

Keep the Faith

Have faith in the process and do not give up should you encounter any pitfalls. Learn from your mistakes and do it all over again.

Customers will not be lining up right away unless you are giving out scrumptious hotcakes. It will take time and a lot of effort on your part to finally make your mark on your niche and for people to take notice of you.

Keep a positive outlook and always observe quality of your service to keep the customers satisfied and coming back for more.

How to Generate Online Leads for Your Local Business

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I was thinking the other day about lead lists. Do you remember those? They were lists compiled by marketing or sales agencies, occasionally by individuals, then sold.

The idea was to have a huge list of potential customers right there at your fingertips, cutting out the work involved in generating your own leads.

Unfortunately these lists were sold to everyone who searched for them, making them an over-saturated collection of names and email addresses that did more harm than help.

The truth is that lead generation takes effort. We can’t take shortcuts and expect results, because the process of finding leads is such an important and necessary part of the overall process.

Does that mean we can’t find ways to do it a little more efficiently? Not at all!

Set up your site

It is astounding how many local businesses still have no websites to link to from their Google Local or Yelp profile pages.

In any digital marketing strategy starting a website is fundamental to any business.

Use this cool brand name generator to set up your brand identity and go from there!

namify

Utilize other forms of media

Take your time to make the most of your social media profiles:

  • Add your address and phone number wherever you can!
  • Keep your response time prime. On business pages there is a little box by the Send a Message option that states how long pages respond. You want yours to be immediate. So make sure you are keeping up on those direct messages.
  • Take advantage of pinned posts. You can pin a post to the top of your page, where every other post will fall underneath it without dislodging its spot. That allows you to provide a message to everyone who visits your page… like maybe a CTA to visit your site?
  • Use GREAT branded images. People can sometimes skimp out on adapted logo images for social sites. You need to go the extra mile here and make sure it is the highest possible quality. There are a variety of WordPress plugins which you can use for that. Colorlib has a great collection of those!

But don’t just stop there: Integrate your online and offline marketing efforts whenever you can. It is shocking to see how effective TV and radio ads can be on a local level. If you happen to be in a position to run ads, or you have been already, put your URL in there, then mention your social media pages.

Make sure it is all very easy to remember, though! No one is going to visit if your URL or social media tags are overly complicated.

Create an app that can be used both online and in stores

Apps are pretty much the standard these days, as it is rare to come across someone who doesn’t have a smartphone. Even brands like McDonald’s have created apps, which allow people to order food in ahead of arriving, or use QR code coupons to take advantage of deals you can’t find anywhere else.

Having an app that can be used both in and out of physical stores nicely ties together those leads, while giving you a goldmine of customer information that normally you would have to pay a marketing agency to find for you.

Find other local businesses to cross-promote with

There is a restaurant that also has a food truck that sells to local businesses during lunch time, traveling from lot to lot for fifteen minute intervals. They also have a static location that is mostly ignored.

In order to improve their sales at the actual restaurant they teamed up with a local brewery that creates craft lagers that have been growing in popularity. They offer half-off appetizers with the purchase of one of these beers, at one per table.

The brewery also offers this promotion on their end. You can pick up a coupon from their on-site store for the half off appetizer when you go into the shop. That way people don’t have to buy the beer during their meal but can still get the benefit.

All of this is promoted – you guessed it – online. It is a great example of how you can integrate cooperative strategies both online and offline for the mutual benefit of both brands.

Other businesses are looking for the same chance for backlinks that you are. Cross promotion can be a great way to get that. Say you own a bike shop that is known for bikes of all types and purposes. In your city there is another shop that is known for outdoors gear like tents, hiking boots, etc.

You two can combine forces to offer discounts for goods at one another’s store, or perhaps come up with a bundle package that appeals to mountain bikers. Post about this cross promotion on social media and one another’s websites for some powerful backlinks that also lets you each target one another’s established audience.

Use local directories to find those local businesses to partner with!

Inject yourself into local communities

A nearby Atheist group was looking for local sponsors to provide event spaces and items for their community get-togethers, parties and charity galas. About a dozen local companies obliged and have given food, merchandise and free use of business space for parties.

Every time an event is hosted these companies are named as sponsors online through social media, newsletter emails, on their official site and during reviews. This is a great opportunity for online presence building for those businesses and that is resulting in an increase in the local companies getting involved.

Local communities of all types are a perfect platform for visibility, while building a feeling of goodwill with local customers. Many of those businesses also gained lifelong customers. One local burger joint providing food for the past several events have credited that particular organization for an almost doubling of their weekly sales!

Small businesses have a great advantage of using online marketing these days! So don’t neglect those opportunities!

Image source: Pixabay