Successful Blog

Stand Out From the Crowd: 5 Personal Branding Tips for Entrepreneurs

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By Ava Morrison

Entrepreneurs often become the public faces of their companies. Follow these five branding tips to build a reputation for yourself as well as your company.

Branding Tip #1: Use a Consistent Voice That Emphasizes Your Identity

Consistency is a key component to effective branding, especially when it comes to the voice and personality that you portray online. No matter what platforms you use, you want to maintain a voice that your fans and followers can easily identify.

Assuming that you have a personality that your target audience will like, you just have to be yourself. Everyone has off days, though. Always read over your posts and tweets before sending them out. You don’t want to distance your fans just because you’re having a bad day.

Branding Tip #2: Establish Your Twitter Handle

Twitter is a great branding tool that lets you send out short messages to your followers. You can use it to comment on current events, mention upcoming promotions for your business, or just make random observations about the world.

Justin Bieber has the world’s most popular Twitter account. That’s partially because he’s one of the world’s most popular entertainers. Give the young man some credit, though. He uses the Twitter machine to deliver positive messages daily. He releases info about his own work, but he also promotes other stars and lesser-known artists.

Even if you’re not a fan, following his Twitter feed will show you how to use the platform well.

Branding Tip #3: Register Your Own Name as a Website Domain

Having your own domain name makes it easier for you to separate yourself from similar entrepreneurs. Many people use their websites to showcase their careers. You can also use it to help people connect to the other platforms that you use, like Facebook and Twitter.

You don’t have to spend a ton of money registering a .com domain. For example, the popular Pastor Ed Young uses a .info page that provides information about himself and his work. It’s basically a comprehensive biography of his work and life.

He also has a .com page that emphasizes his entrepreneurial activities, such as book sales and speaking tours. That’s important, but his personal page offers straight-forward branding that avoids direct advertising.

Branding Tip #4: Update Your Blog Frequently

Your blog gives you a chance to talk about any topic that interests you. You’re not limited to 140 characters like you are with Twitter. Plus, you can use your blog content to push readers towards your static webpage.

Like any other type of branding, make sure you use a consistent voice that describes the world from your point of view.

Branding Tip #5: Use Social Media to Get More Followers

Currently, Facebook has more active users than any other social media platform. Having a personal page that’s separate from your business page will let you keep in contact with your fans and colleagues.

Facebook is a great tool because it can help you attract fans for your other social media pages and websites, too. Post YouTube videos, blog entries, and Twitter messages to Facebook to reach more people.

What other branding tips should entrepreneurs follow? Have you found online platforms that you like more than those mentioned above?

Author’s Bio: Ava is a freelance writer who resides in Tampa, FL. She likes to travel, workout and spend time with the people she loves.

Be Free

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Today is the 4th of July celebration here in the US, and most of us will be grilling something, spending time with our families, and possibly releasing our inner pyromaniac with small fireworks.

What we’re really celebrating is the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Do you feel free?

In this brief post, I’d like to remind you that freedom is not simply physical. It’s mental, too. Molly Cantrell-Craig wrote an excellent post about the four elements of human freedom last year.

Are you imprisoning your creative thoughts? Are you stopping yourself from taking a new direction with your business? Are you stifling your contribution to the world?

Be free.

If you have been considering a move to a new city, if you are working on a new product idea, if you have an idea for a controversial blog post, now is your time. There’s no outside force stopping you.

Be free.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Am I Missing Any Tax Breaks?

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If you run a small business, you know that every dollar really does count.

Whether you’re just getting off the ground or your business has an established track record, it’s still helpful to save money whenever possible.

Tax deductions are one area where a little knowledge can go a long way. The more breaks you’re aware of, the more opportunities you’ll see for your business to save money.

To give you an idea of what types of savings are available, let’s go over some of the most commonly overlooked small business tax deductions:

Bad Debts

One of the biggest surprises many new business owners have is just how hard it can be to collect money from certain clients or customers. This issue is especially prevalent among service businesses.

Even though it’s very frustrating to have clients who simply won’t pay what they owe you, the silver lining is bad debts can generally be deducted when you file for your business.

Mileage

Whether it’s driving to a meeting, attending a networking event or going to see a client, you’re allowed to deduct mileage that’s used for work purposes.

Just be sure that whenever you want to deduct mileage, you log the date and where you’re going, as well as the mileage at the beginning and end of your trip.

Charitable Donations

You may already be aware that eligible donations you make to charity can be deducted.

But what plenty of business owners don’t realize is it’s often more advantageous to make deductible donations through their business than from their personal money.

Cloud-Based Software

More and more software is moving to the Cloud.

The main advantage for customers is it allows them to access their software from any computer with an Internet connection. And one of the primary advantages for software developers is whenever there’s a bug, they can instantly push out a fix.

Because they provide ongoing service, many cloud software developers charge on a monthly basis. If you have one or more cloud software subscriptions, be sure to deduct all your monthly charges.

Business Trip Incidentals

Landline calls, lodging taxes, cleaning and laundry are all examples of acceptable incidentals from business trips that you can deduct.

And as long as you keep a log, you can also deduct train, subway, bus and taxi fares.

Loan Interest

If you borrow money against a personal loan like your mortgage in order to buy equipment for your business, you can deduct the interest on your loan.

The two most important things to remember about this break are that you need to use the money for your business, and you also need to document exactly how you used it.

As you can see, there are plenty of tax deductions available for small businesses. The key is keeping track of all of them.

By making it a priority to keep current and detailed records throughout the entire year, you’ll be able to maximize your deductions when the time comes to actually file your taxes.

Photo credit: American.com

About the Author: Jesse Galt is a freelancer who writes about a wide range of topics, including mobile credit card processing and small business marketing strategies.

How to Enhance the Usability of Your E-Commerce Site

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By Charles Mburugu

Usability is a very important factor for the success of any website. When designing your ecommerce site, your aim should not just be to have an online store which looks good on the eye. Instead, work at building a site that makes it easy for customers to find information and complete the checkout process. If visitors have a hard time finding what they are looking for, they will simply leave and go elsewhere.

Here are some tips that will help you make your ecommerce site more user-friendly.

1. Offer contact information

Besides enhancing sales, an ecommerce site can be a very powerful tool for attracting new leads and building new bonds with customers. It is therefore very important to have a dedicated page in your site that contains your contact information. In addition, these details should appear clearly on all your site’s pages. Besides the usual email address, include links to your social media profiles. This will enable visitors to reach you through the medium that suits them best. If possible, you could also offer telephone contacts.

2. Make your navigation clear

Most ecommerce sites have many pages with lots of information about a wide range of products. As a result, visitors are likely to lose their way. This is why a good navigation system is absolutely essential. At any one time, visitors should know exactly where they are, where they have come from and where they can go. A breadcrumb navigation system is very helpful. In addition, make sure your pages have clear headings and subheadings which show the subject of the page.

3. Add a search feature

A native search feature makes it possible for visitors to find what they are looking for without having to go through numerous pages. Make sure the search bar appears prominently on your pages in a place where visitors can easily find it. You could place it on the top of the page or on the right sidebar. Whatever the case, make sure it is ‘above the fold’ (can be viewed without scrolling). To make the search function more effective, you could break it down into filters such as color, size, price, availability and type. This search filter will offer your visitors a more pleasant user experience.

4. Show related products

When designing your product pages, place related products in a common group. When a customer purchases a particular product, you could suggest a different product in the same group. This enhances the likelihood of the customer buying another product, even if they had not planned to.

5. Add a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section

When visitors land on your pages and read the content, they might still be left with a wide range of questions. It is therefore vital to have a dedicated FAQ page on your site which seeks to answer some of the concerns customers are likely to raise. However, allow your customers to contact you in case they need further clarification on anything.

6. Make registration optional

If you require visitors to sign up before accessing your site, they are likely to get put off and simply go away. Therefore, I recommend that you make registration optional. Allow customers to shop even if they are not registered. This will attract more people to your ecommerce site and ultimately enhance customer loyalty.

Author’s Bio: Charles Mburugu is a HubSpot-certified content writer/marketer for B2B, B2C and SaaS companies. He has worked with brands such as GetResponse, Neil Patel, Shopify, 99 Designs, Oberlo, Salesforce and Condor. Check out his portfolio and connect on LinkedIn.

Avoid These Four Email Marketing Mistakes

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By Kelly Gregorio

With the right email-marketing program in place, you can connect with your customers while saving your business money, time and effort. With the option of real-time messages, email marketing is a great option all around for small business owners.

However, like most things in life, email marketing is only worth the effort if you’re going to do it right the first time. Avoid these tragic mistakes and get everyone excited when they see your business’s name in their inbox.

1. You’re Wasting Their Time

If you’re going to send a promotional email, make sure it offers added value to your readers. Whether you are notifying them of a sale or a special event, your audience deserves to have all of the necessary details clearly provided. Shy away from unnecessary updates that could just as easily be communicated though your Twitter and Facebook feeds.

In addition to providing your audience with informational value, strive to get them an entertaining educational lesson too. After all, you are an expert in your field, so be willing to showcase your talents with tangible takeaways and engaging how-tos. Brand your content-heavy emails with situations (holidays, universal events) related to your readers’ outside worlds.

2. You’re Not Consistent

If one month you’re sending off a few emails a week, and then the next month you barely get one out, you’ve got a problem. Audiences are willing to give you access to their inbox but please, above all else, be consistent. Find a flow that works for both you and your readers and stick with it.

The bonus lies in the branding method (for example you could send out a “Top of the Month” email), which readers will come to expect. This consistency will showcase your trustworthiness as a host and it will likely increase loyalty among your audience.

Additionally, be sure to be consistent with the rest of your look as an overall brand. Be sure to match templates, fonts and colors with the rest of your company’s look. While your audiences are taking on the reader role, they also make connections visually, so allow them to match what they see with their understanding of your brand.

3. You Forget to Scrutinize Before You Send

Regardless of how great your email seems to be, if you are quick to hit send you could be wasting all of that initial effort. No matter your command of the English language, every writer needs an editor. Make a promise to yourself never to break the golden rule of any written content: have another set of eyes review your work.

Along these lines, be sure to test your email before you send it off to your entire audience. Have willing participants (friends or co-workers) open their inboxes up as test zones. Spam filters and plain text options all need to be addressed before your formal send off.

4. You’re Not Share Happy

The email campaign that is strictly formulated for computers is a dead one. Almost everyone is checking their email on their phones these days, which is why your campaign needs to have a converted mobile version. Don’t sell yourself short by limiting your reader’s access to only certain technologies.

For those that are sending out consistently killer emails and still are not getting the response they’ve expected, relax, a simple tweak could nix this issue. By adding Twitter or Facebook links to your emails you are heavily increasing your chances of spreading your word. And if you’ve done everything this article has listed so far (i.e. provided interesting and thorough information in a consistent and polished manner), chances are it will get passed on.

Your turn–what other pitfalls of email marketing have you learned to avoid?

Author’s Bio: Kelly Gregorio writes about topics that affect entrepreneurs and small businesses while working at Advantage Capital Funds, a merchant cash advance provider. You can read her daily business blog here.

Book Review: Insightful Knowledge, by Stephen Monaco

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Book review: Insightful Knowledge: An Enlightened View of Social Media Strategy & Marketing By Stephen Monaco

“When it comes to creating a social media marketing strategy companies must get their head around a simple concept. The objective is not to excel at social media per se. The objective is to effectively utilize social media to help your business excel.” Stephen Monaco, Insightful Knowledge

Let me start this book review by stating that this is not a how-to book.

Insightful knowledge offers a foundation for anyone who aspires to be a “champion” for integrating social media with their marketing mix.

Valuable lessons, statistics, and examples abound in this high level look at social media strategy. Stephen Monaco’s roots in traditional marketing run deep, as he was one of the early pioneers in the tech industry.

The first third of the book is groundwork, carefully laying out how we arrived at this crazy point in time where the power has shifted from the big brands to the consumers. It’s necessary to absorb this history if you want any chance of leveraging the forces at work.

Who should read this book? I’d recommend it for anyone who needs to convince colleagues that social media will support their business strategy, for anyone who wants a coherent explanation of why social media is not a fad but a major shift, or for those who have just started putting together a social media strategy for their organization.

My only criticism is that the “voice” of the book is pretty dry and statistical, but it’s exactly the type of unemotional, hard-core information that will appeal if you’re trying to convince the C-suite to do something, so perhaps that’s a necessary evil.

Key Lessons for Aspiring Social Media Champions

  • Obsess about your customers’ needs, and shift your thinking from sales to marketing
  • Look for ways that social media can enhance all areas of your business, not just marketing
  • Be methodical about creating a social media strategy, but leave room for tactical adjustments
  • Put listening at the top of your list, and use what you learn to serve customers better
  • Pay attention to which tactics are resulting in conversions, however you define conversion
  • Don’t be afraid to experiment, iterate on your plan continually
  • Don’t ever lose sight of your business goals, and make sure your social media efforts always tie back to your Key Performance Indicators.

If you’re looking for a compelling case for including social media in your business strategy, pick up this insightful book and start taking notes.

Disclosure: I received a free digital copy of the book for review purposes, however, this did not in any way impact the content of my review, which represents my own honest opinion.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee