Successful Blog

Do You Have Designs on a Mobile App?

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asuccess 52114As a business owner, what were your top goals coming into 2014?

Some may say lowering their budgets, while others may point to making better hires. Still others might have focused on becoming more adept at social media.

No matter what your primary objective was when the calendar turned to 2014, thinking about how you can improve your business model should be a never-ending focus of what you do.

With that said, how mobile is your business? Specifically, does your business offer a mobile app?

If you don’t think about the following information from j2 Global and eMarketer:

  • Barely 13.5 percent of small businesses noted mobile marketing was a top priority for them;
  • It is projected that more than 45 percent of Americans will use the mobile Internet at least once a month this year;
  • Nearly 70 percent of those individuals running small businesses state they have used or will use Facebook mobile apps in their marketing efforts this year. Meantime, nearly 43 percent have used or will use mobile Twitter apps, while just over 34 percent have used or will be using mobile YouTube apps.

Don’t Wait for a Mobile App, Get it now

With those numbers in mind, what are some reasons you need to get with the right mobile app design company and push forward with a mobile app this year?

Among the reasons a mobile app can be beneficial to your small business:

  1. Consumers are on the go – Face it, many consumers are shopping while at work, running around doing errands, or from the comforts of home. Yes, many people still shop in person, but there is a growing block of people that can increase your revenue stream when they can be mobile shoppers. The bottom line is mobile apps, tablets and smart phones have revolutionized how Americans shop. Even if someone doesn’t buy a product or service from you, having a mobile app is crucial in order to provide customers with product and service information (see more below on marketing), directions to your business, your hours of operations, contact details and more;
  2. Your competitors likely have one – While you can’t be fixated 24/7 on what the competition is doing, it is a rather safe assumption that your competitors have mobile apps. In that case, they’re already one step ahead of you if you don’t offer one;
  3. Data gathering – Although some businesses still rely on a paper trail of information to see what customers shop for, purchase etc. more and more are finding mobile apps can serve as a treasure trove of data. In a day and age when money is tight and time is of the essence, having key data with which to rely on is important. When you target current and potential customers with ads, knowing what their likes and dislikes are via mobile app data gathering saves you time and money;
  4. Affordable marketing – With a mobile app, you can spread the word about the products/services you have to offer. By utilizing the incoming data that you can receive by having an app, you can target your marketing efforts towards those most likely to buy from you. When you find relevant people, you focus in on them, allowing you to drive more sales.

Now that you can see all a mobile has to offer, take the time to find the right product.

Yes, there are countless app designers to choose from, but which one is best for your brand?

First and foremost, find one that comes with high recommendations.

Along with word-of-mouth, be sure to visit the designer’s website and check their social media action on Twitter, Facebook etc. Look to see what kind of social interaction it is they have with consumers, along with how often.

Also do a Google search of the company’s name, looking for any flash points.

If they’ve received a number of customer complaints, have had issues with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or have stability issues with their finances, those are all red flags.

In a day and age when mobility is key, is a mobile app on your priority list for 2014?

Photo credit: KROMKRATHOG / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about a variety of subjects on the web, including small business, social media and finances.

Is Your Content Marketing in Need of Video?

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Content marketing that does not utilize video just seems to fall flat compared to moving image marketing strategies.

And, considering attention spans are getting shorter and shorter with every innovative viral sensation that hits the Internet, if your company’s missing out on video in its marketing content, it’s likely missing out on a huge cyber audience.

So, what are the benefits of using videos as part of your company’s content marketing strategy?

 Video is Growing in Popularity

If you surf the Internet for different advertising and marketing campaigns, chances are you’ll find videos posted in company blogs, on business homepages, and everywhere in between. Simply put, video content marketing is growing in popularity.

Text is and always will be a content essential, but the marketing masses are turning to video in droves as a way to expand on their marketing efforts.

So, to avoid being left out to dry, it’s wise to jump on-board the video bandwagon. Besides, the average Internet user already watches more than 100 videos a month and counting.

Watch-ability Outweighs Readability

As stated before, online attention spans are quickly adapting to the video format, thus giving other forms of content the backseat. With video, your company can say what it wants, how it wants, with visual representation, all in one short video.

Think of it this way, with your busy schedule, would you rather read about a company for 10 minutes, or watch and experience what that company is trying to convey in a 3-minute video? Video gives your company the opportunity to expand beyond the written word and truly reach the audience.

Vlog, Don’t Blog

Blogging is great because it gives your company an opportunity to express itself as well as inform and update online audiences – all of which are essential marketing tools. But, with vlogging, or video blogging, incorporating videos into blog posts brings your company’s online presence to a whole new level.

So, instead of posting a blog about the newest line of products or the most innovative services your company has to offer, vlog instead. Likewise, as far as customer questions go, responding in a vlog post is much more effective than just replying to a customers’ comment via the written format.

Inherently Compelling Content

People relate to images more so than words and with video, your content marketing is already compelling because it’s visual. In other words, what do you think is going to get more online traffic: a how-to article or a how-to video with step-by-step visual instructions?

Everything from demonstrations to interviews to customer testimonials to straightforward advertisements are automatically in class of their own with video. As long as you keep the video content unique and engaging, audiences will watch without even realizing they’re being marketed to.

When it comes to content marketing with an undeniable impact, going the video route will take your company to new cyber-heights.

Photo credit: videobroadcasterservices.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including marketing, problems with ripoff report, and social media.

 

Can My Business Survive Negative Press?

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A negative news story or bad review — in print or online — is almost inevitably a cause for alarm in a business owner’s life. Bad PR, whether justified or not, can cut into a company’s sales volume and ultimately tip the balance from profit to loss.

Although it’s hard not to panic when confronted with bad press, business owners should guard against that reaction at all costs.

Panic will do nothing to address the matter and could keep the company from taking timely steps to reverse or undo the damage from the negative publicity.

So, what are the steps to undertake when this situation occurs? Among them:

Evaluate Report

The first step must be a careful evaluation of the news story or online posting that is the cause for concern.

Is the report accurate? Does it make valid points about a product’s failings? A restaurant’s service?

Or is it a malicious — and unfounded — attack on the business? No matter what the report’s origins, steps can be taken to undo the damage. It may take time, however.

Although lashing out in anger may very well be the business owner’s knee-jerk reaction to bad press, this is almost certain to appear defensive and may only exacerbate the public relations nightmare that bad press can cause.

Although it’s essential to cool down before responding to bad press, a timely response is essential. It’s unwise to let too much time elapse before making a reasoned response, preferably in the same medium in which the negative report first appeared.

Own Up to It

Hopefully, a careful analysis of the negative report has determined whether it is justified or not.

If the criticism implicit in the report is valid, then the business owner must take responsibility for the product’s flaw and pledge to correct the problem before the product returns to the market. Owning up to a company’s failings and pledging to make things right tends to humanize the business and create a more favorable impression on the public.

In the event, however, the report is inaccurate, the business’s response should contain a calm and rational defense of the product or service in question.

If a news story is the source of the bad press, an attack on the reporter is senseless and, once again, comes off as uncomfortably defensive.

Reporters are human too and sometimes make mistakes, including failing to solicit comments from the subject of a negative story before the article is printed.

Gray Areas Exist

Not every instance of bad press can be subjected to a definitive analysis of right or wrong.

A restaurant review that suggests bad service or under-cooked food on the night the restaurant critic visited is virtually impossible to refute.

In a case such as that, the restaurant owner is probably best served by acknowledging that lapses in service and quality occasionally occur and by promising to do everything possible to avoid them in the future. Getting into a war of words with a restaurant critic only tends to call greater attention to the original negative review.

To help bolster a business’s ability to withstand negative publicity, business owners should work tirelessly to strengthen the power of their brands.

If the brand of a product or service strikes a strong positive vibe in the minds of consumers, it is better able to survive an instance — or prolonged assault — of bad press.

Solid Brands Weather Storms

Toyota, Ford, Tylenol, and countless others have been subjected to long-running struggles with negative publicity, some of it justified and some not, but so powerful were those brands that they emerged pretty much intact, if a bit battered.

It is, of course, unrealistic to expect small business owners that operate locally or regionally to attain a brand recognition comparable to these multinational giants. But consistent product and service excellence can establish a strong brand, if only in a somewhat smaller marketplace.

And a strong brand helps a company to survive negative publicity with little, if any, lasting damage.

Photo credit: zdnet.com

About the Author: Jay Fremont is a freelance author who has written extensively about personal finance, corporate strategy, and Amerisave.

How to Attract the Leaders in the Pack

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(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

10-Point Plan — Attracting Second Generation Heroes and Champions

Employees as Volunteers and Volunteers as Employees

Whether you’re a small enterprise like SOBCon building a brand and a legacy to stand upon or you’re an internationally known brand with a legacy of success and relationships that you want to nurture and protect, your employees and volunteers are the heart of your brand.

What makes that heart beat?
What gets those people to invest their time into your quest rather than into some other endeavor each day?
One of three reasons brings us to work and that reason that drives us runs through every nuance of every interaction that we undertake — every success we enjoy and every error we miss, overlook or turnaround in a fabulous way.

Whether you’re paying for a job role or enlisting volunteers, what you want is a volunteer who leads like a $200,000 / year employee. Leaders like that are learners who are focused on the cause and willing to put their minds, hearts, and vision into making the best things happen.

The Three Kinds of People Who Show Up to Work

People often say “There are two kinds of people, those who … and those who don’t.” In this case there are really three. Knowing all three will help you find and identify the leaders you need.

  • It’s a job. These volunteers are looking for an in-kind return. They are worker economists in that they do a hard day’s work for a hard day’s pay. The return might not be money. It might be a free seat, new clients or contacts that translate into potential work, a chance to raise the level of their pay grade by raising their skills and contacts. Be aware that they aren’t working for your brand or cause. They are executing a transaction.
  • It’s a career. These volunteers are looking to build their resume.They are politicians in that they look for a return that will enhance their own value proposition. The return is not financial it’s power and positioning. They do a hard day’s work for the ability to say they were part of the team. They might be working for a recommendation or entrance into a new network that will offer more opportunity. Understand that their first purpose isn’t working for your brand, it’s to extend their reach.
  • It’s a quest. These volunteers care about money and reach, but are driven by a need to build something no one can build alone. They look for a situation that will allow them to invest their best and want the same in return. Leaders will actually work for less if they’re convinced that the quest, the people, and process will be tied to values and intelligent ROI.

I bet you could phrase a set of questions and conditions to attract the best volunteers to that outstanding project you want to take off.

How would you start?

READ the Whole 10-Point Plan Series: On the Successful Series Page.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Will Your Customers Define Your Brand or Will You?

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(Updated in 2020)

Photo by Rodion Kutsaev on Unsplash

10-Point Plan: Build a Brand Values Baseline

Live Your Brand

Before the Internet, when we were silently niched by geographic markets the conversation with customers was one way. We wrote, televised, advertised to them. Then they read, watched, or saw our message and formed their ideas of what those messages said.

Customers decided who we are from the messages we sent.

When the Internet opened up the two-way conversation began. Now we’re finding more and better ways to listen talk, and interact with customers directly. We’re talking on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and social sites we make just for them.

Don’t miss the opportunity in how the social business web has changed brands.

This shift in the way we interact with our customers has a significant impact on the theory of how a brand is born and who determines the character of a brand. We now have a huge opportunity to demonstrate our brand values as we claim them.

We can now define our brand with much more clarity and control than before because we can include our customers as we do. In that way we have a huge opportunity to take our brands where we want them to be. Here’s how to take advantage of this new branding power …

  • Define the core values that your brand represents.
  • Communicate that set of core values — a brand values baseline — to everyone you work with and for.
  • Check every business decision against that values baseline.
  • Celebrate and reward anyone who demonstrates your brand’s values.
  • Choose evangelists who share those values and encourage them to share their ideas.

Live your values and you’ll attract the people to your brand who value what you do. Ask the people who are doing the work what would just one thing. As your heroes and champions get more interested in the values that underpin your business, so will the people who look up to them.

A single meeting with the heroes and champions who love what you do can bring out the best in your brand in less time than a whole team from a huge consulting firm.

Have you found the way to define your brand or are you letting your customers do all of that for you?

Related
To follow the entire series: Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Successful Duncan Riley

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By now you must have heard about the secret auction held to sell the

Blog Herald Logo

to an as yet to be named new owner for what is being reported at over $70,000 USD.

Congratulations Duncan Riley on building an enterprise and a brand valued so highly. I think that officially qualifies you as an SOB–a Successful and Outstanding Blogger. I hereby award you with the badge of honor and your name on this blog forever.

SOB Button

Duncan’s Blog Herald has been on my reading list almost since the day I started blogging. It’s a one-of-a kind read that holds the niche of understanding the blogosphere and reporting on blogs around the world. I’ll miss reading Duncan’s take on things. I’ll miss having Duncan around.

On the other hand, it couldn’t happen to a better guy.

Duncan shares some of his reasons and reflections on the sale at these links, which I’ve tried to place in chronological order.

Twas The Blog Herald that’s been on the market

David Krug spends time with Duncan Riley

Duncan answers questions on The Blog Herald sale

Duncan talks to Site Sales about what he would look for in a blog

Duncan and Darren discuss the sale and using a broker

Seriously, Duncan all badges aside. I’ll miss reading you at 2:30 a.m. up here by Lake Michigan. So once you guys get b5 going strong, I’ll be looking for your new blog.

Best of Luck Always.
Liz