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Why Business Cards Still Matter

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If you’re a tech-savvy, online-shopping, social media-sharing internet junkie like much of the rest of the world, you probably wonder why some businesses still rely on business cards.

We live in a time where the world is at our fingertips – literally – thanks to the internet. You can find company information, contact pages, product information and more with just the click of a button.

So, how do business cards still fit in?

Surprisingly, a Small Business Sentiment Survey conducted by Yodle found that roughly 52 percent of small businesses still don’t have a website. And, in North America alone, more than 20 percent of the population does not use the internet, according to Internet World Stats.

Business cards won’t get lost in the shuffle of the world-wide web. They’re concrete, edgy and still very useful.

In fact, a survey conducted by Designcrowd found that 87 percent of Americans exchange business cards when meeting. If you own and operate a small business, that statistic alone should be enough to make you want to develop your own personalized business card.

Why business cards matter

Though having a website and developing company social media pages are important, you still need to have a real-life, tangible business card to help meet your needs.

Keep in mind:

  1. Business cards put a face to a business – When meeting someone new, handing them your business card (preferably with your photo on it) will help keep your business in the back of their minds. Though they may not need your product or services today, there may come a time when they do, and hopefully they will be able to pull out your business card and call versus trying to remember your company name and searching the web.
  2. Business cards visually create your brand – Your business card should stand out among the rest. It showcases you and your company in a visually creative way. Don’t just simply put your name and phone number on the card; instead, add color, a photo or two and your business’ motto. Make it easy for your potential customer to want to use your services.
  3. Without a business card, you look unprofessional – Even if your business is done almost solely online, you still should carry a business card for when you meet new people – whether at the gym or at your child’s birthday party. Local business is always important and by handing out your business card to new people you meet, you’re greatly increasing your chances of growing your business. Plus, if a new friend is genuinely interested in your company and you have no way of providing them with contact information, you may have lost them as your future customer.

If you’d like to get creative, Canva offers a “Free Business Card Maker” so you can easily create your own business cards with a few clicks.

Almost as important as the business card itself is how you carry them.

While stashing a few in your pocket may work, it’s better to be organized with a sleek, high-quality holder.

Retailers such as Walmart offer a variety of business card holders at an affordable price. This Engraved Leather Business Card Case is lightweight, will fit into your suit jacket pocket and is personalized all for $25.

Have your business card handy and always carry at least 5 with you at all times.

As a business owner, marketing your business is not a 9 to 5 job, it’s a 24/7/365 job since you’ll always be on the lookout for new business.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of savit keawtavee / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Sarah Brooks is a freelance writer living in Glendale, AZ. She writes on small businesses, personal finances and travel.

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.

 

Have You Promoted Your Company Today?

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The old adage that you have to spend money to make money is very true, yet we all know businesses that do not adhere to this belief.

So, stop what you are doing for a minute at work and ask yourself a very simple question, is my company doing all it can to promote itself? If the answer is no, now is the time to speak up.

One of the first things you may hear from upper management is that we’re promoting the company within our budgetary means, aka we are spending as little money as possible to get our brand out there.

While it is understandable in a troubling economy that small businesses especially will want to refrain from large promotional expenditures, this would actually be a good time to be using promotional items in order to improve the company’s brand recognition.

Keep in mind that many other businesses are also probably thinking that everyone else is not spending money, so why should we? The simple response to that line of thinking is that while other businesses are holding back on promoting their companies, now is the time to strike.

Whether you are an administrative assistant, an upper management employee or even a company intern, don’t be afraid to offer your two cents as to how your employer can better promote the business.

Among the simple ways to do this include:

  • Social media – I’m still amazed when I peruse various sites on Facebook and Twitter,the two biggest venues for social media, and see that companies are missing the boat. I often hear that management feels it cannot get a true reading of return on investment (ROI) on its social media efforts, so the decision is made to bail on any additional SM work. The bottom line is that social media is essentially free, a great way to promote one’s company, allowing companies to appear as an authority in their respective industry by sharing worthwhile information for current and potential customers. Whether you are active or not in your company’s social media efforts, visit the company Facebook, Twitter, Google+ pages and any other sites your employer is on. Question the individual or individuals in charge of such sites if the pages are not updated regularly;
  • Community events – Getting involved in the local community is a great way with which to promote your business. Such opportunities are not only a way to build up goodwill within the community, but also to network with other local businesses. In the event you run a local cell phone business, get together with your area realtor, florist, eateries etc. to promote each others businesses. The old adage of scratching one’s back while they scratch yours is very true. Before you know it, you will have community members coming to you for business; hopefully you are returning the favor. Small businesses in a local community tend to stick together and patronize one another in order to keep the bigger corporations out, so be a leader in this area;
  • Use bumper stickers, buttons, business cards, T-shirts, etc. – These are great means by which to spread the word about your company. Imagine the potential response rate your small business could get around town if just your employees alone were sporting bumper stickers on their cars promoting your Web site, wearing T-shirts to the local stores and more. It may sound hokey to some, but making up such items is relatively cheap and can be very beneficial to those not aware of what your company does;
  • Buy local air or print time – This means to promote your company obviously involves some funding, but it can be money well spent. Even though many people tune out radio/TV commercials, and even though many newspapers are finding their numbers down these days, there still is a sizable audience that turns to these venues for news and information. Target the most effective times to promote your business, such as radio ads in drive time and coupons in the Sunday paper.

There are a variety of other ways you can employ in order to promote your small business, some of which may or may not get the owner’s approval. Remember too to never overlook your community’s Chamber of Commerce.

The bottom line is ALL employees need to be thinking about ways to better promote the companies they work for.

Remember, each and every employee has a vested interest in the company doing well, so promotion is everyone’s job.

Dave Thomas, who discusses subjects such as online marketing, writes extensively for San Diego-based Business.com.

Begged, Borrowed, or Stolen … The Economics of Influence

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Asking for Influence Gets You Something Else

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Earlier this month I received a string of private, direct messages (DMs) on Twitter from someone who has never sent me a public or private via Twitter or other social network. She’s never sent me an email. I’m pretty sure she’s never commented on my blog or my Instagram photos. She’s not a shareholder on Empire Avenue. As far as I recall, we’ve not met me at a conference or had a conversation on the telephone. Our sole relationship is that she is a human being with a Twitter account who chose to follow me whom I chose to follow back because she has an interesting Twitter bio.

The first direct message asked me if I could “get out the vote” because she wanted to win some prize being given to the person who got the most votes. I don’t know anything about her beyond her Twitter bio. How could I ask my friends to “get out the vote”? The choice seemed simple choose for my friends and my network — by not asking them to invest time — or choose for someone I don’t know.

That’s when it got interesting. The string of messages that came next thanked me for my help and asked me for help again. One in the mix — most likely meant to explain the behavior said, “she was crazy for the prize,” but she’d be happy to get noticed even if she couldn’t “take it home.”

The experience reminded me of a wave of similar requests that flooded my Twitter account during the run of the Fast Company Influencer Project in 2010 and a blog post I wrote about influence back then. What follows with some further explanation is what still applies now.

Recently Jason Pollock commented on Twitter about the Fast Company Influencer Project Project @Jason_Pollack said, I signed up for the “influence project” but quickly realized those at the top were just being very spammy to be there.

Robert Scoble replied with some true words of wisdom … @Scobleizer said, “Seems to me @Jason_Pollock that people with real influence never have to point it out or beg for it.”

They have a point.

Begged, Borrowed, or Stolen … The Economics of Influence

People rich with influence understand it as a currency. True and lasting influence — like true and lasting wealth — is earned through investment of time and resources. But it’s also a way of thinking and valuing what we do and the people we do it with. But influence, unlike monetary currency, cannot be begged, borrowed, or stolen. It can only be earned.

When a stranger asks me to “get out the vote,” she’s begging to borrow my influence as if it’s a limitless commodity that I’m at liberty to share. Were I so frivolous as to offer my network so freely to people I don’t know, I’d soon find that I’d spent what influence I had foolishly by not valuing the people who had valued my word. Or to paraphrase the axiom …

A fool and her influence are soon parted. Here are four ways to use the economics of influence to build influence of your own.

The difference between begging and building influence is the difference between giving to get and investing wisely.

  • The exchange rate. In economics, influence would be a local currency. It’s value is only worth what your network agrees that it might be. The ideal is that you might take a single contact to move people to action. Contests that require millions of votes to choose a winner are an example of hyperinflation.

    Power up your network. Be willing to work to prove your value.

    How can you connect with the people who most represent what you value?

  • The production costs. Producing influence takes resources — spent in building quality relationships, systems to maintain them, content to keep connected with them, and ways to grow those relationships. True influence grows from aligning our goals with others.

    Share your influence as an equal partner.

    How can others be better because you helped?

  • Specialization. People rich with influence have integrated their passions and skills into their sphere of influence. They choose their networks on values and ethics and by doing so have established an automatic barrier to entry.

    Know and value what has drawn you to each and all of your contacts.

    How do you describe your network?

  • Scarcity: Supply and Demand. If oak leaves were currency. They would only be valuable where oak trees don’t grow. People who have influence choose and feel no need to showcase their influence bank account. Their generosity is from a place of strength. They promote what they value in others, not what they hope will return.

    Value your word and the power it has.

    How do you know what not to influence?

When we know the value of our influence, we can invest it wisely in people who invest back. We don’t give our value promiscuously to every person who asks. Influence is earned. It’s given as a trust and kept by those who understand its value. It can’t be begged, borrowed or stolen, and in like manner, it can’t be bought or sold.

Who influences you simply by the way he or she influences others?

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

Case Study: How to Passionately Promote Your Product AND a Cause You Love

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Double the Score

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If you’ve been where I’ve been in the last year, you’ve probably seen more than a little of my friend Carol Roth. We were introduced by our mutual friend, Barry Moltz, early in 2010. Carol became my client when her book, The Entrepreneur Equation, was still a manuscript. By the time the client work was delivered, our relationship had evolved into collaboration. You may have seen us together on speaking engagements with Terry Starbucker, my business partner on SOBCon. I also had the pleasure of being part of the shoot for the pilot to Carol’s soon-to-be tv show. You can be there’s still more to come.

This proximity has meant is that I’ve been able see the planning, passion, hard work, and love that has brought that book into being — when the book wasn’t the only goal, when the opportunities and obstacles provided a wealth of distraction, and when the time to do everything was the same given to any regular human being. Yet inside that real-life path, Carol has brought her best game and today she pre-launches that book in a way that is worthy of examining for how it reaches out to do well by doing good.

How to Passionately Promote Your Product AND a Cause You Love

Some folks write books to promote their ideas, to gain authority. Some folks write them to propel their speaking and consulting business. Carol wrote this book because she passionately believes that it’s information that every entrepreneur needs to read before he or she sets out to start a business.

And with that same passion she’s gathered the ingredients and the steam to promote her book, The Entrepreneur Equation, and her favorite cause, SCORE.org simultaneously. What’s she’s doing is a fine case study in how to passionately promote a product and a cause you love …

So here’s my Valentine to her for a job well done and my Valentine to you in the form six steps that might inspire your own product launch.

  1. Build a powerful network of relationships before you need it. A leader reaches out to people who’ve been where she’s going and learns from them. She values their generosity and nurtures relationships. Carol’s been doing that since long before I knew her. That’s how she’s won the esteem of people like Alexis Neely, Les McKeown, Dave Taylor, Michael Port, Terry Starbucker, me and many more.
  2. Have a quest that resonates. Carol is on a quest to help as many entrepreneurs as possible to succeed and to provide them the tools they need to do that just. She doubled-down on her quest by partnering with SCORE.org — America’s premier nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small business succeed nationwide. By matching each book sold with books given to SCORE, the goal is that the 13,000 mentors to America’s small businesses will have this tool to share with millions of entrepreneurs.
  3. Make your message clear. Her message is clean and clear advice for entrepreneurs– sunshine and puppies cost extra — it’s not could you be an entrepreneur but should you be an entrepreneur. Let’s make sure that small businesses succeed.
  4. Do all you can to make it easy to share. Carol’s built a micro-site, shared books, built several offers, tagged her signatures as any author might. She’s also sent emails to those special folks in her network who’ve opted in to the quest and that email is filled with samples ideas of quick ways they might pass on the news about what she’s doing.
  5. Make it satisfying to participate.
    Carol is giving away lots of cool stuff just for accepting the invitation to score for Score — an exclusive 3-part Audio Series and generous offers by entrepreneurs who are on the same quest, including a strategy session with me.
  6. Clear delivery on your promise. I’ve read the book. I know it delivers. I’ve also worked with the author and she just can’t do anything less than wonderful work. The book is packed with tools and advice to make sure that your head and your heart are both up to what it takes to ride the rollercoaster of enterpreneurship and win the race. Wouldn’t you rather know that before you invest the resources and time of your life?

Will this book launch be a success? How could it not? It’s easy, fun, and satisfying to help; it has plenty of payoff for those who do; and it promotes a meaningful cause close to all of us — helping our friends and ourselves get this country back to work — to help SCORE meet their goal of growing 1 million successful new businesses by 2017.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Passion, Love, and Promotion aren’t mutually exclusive.

It’s about having your heart inside your head and doing well to do good.

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

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How NOT to ask for a raise

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by Patty Azzarello

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When I was in my early 20’s I learned an important lesson.

I was working in a start-up company and had gone 3 years without a raise.

The wrong way…

I went to the CEO and asked for a raise.
He said, Why?

Among other things, I said that I had been working for 3 years without a raise, and that I had taken on more and more responsibility over that time, and that I always delivered and often exceeded expectations. I told him it was becoming un-motivating to feel I was working so hard and not moving forward in pay, and peers in other companies were making more money than I was…

He said, I don’t’ care. It’s not my problem. I only care about what the cost is to replace you, and I could replace you for your salary or less – so no raise.

Your job is a contract with your company

You don’t get a raise for good attendance, or because you feel like you deserve one.

You earn a raise by increasing the value of your contribution.

And if you want to get that raise, you need to re-negotiate your contract on terms that are relevant and valuable to your company, not based on what you want or need. And you have to ask.

1. YOU Drive the process

If you are uncomfortable having this conversation with your boss either get comfortable with it, do it anyway, or don’t be disappointed if you get overlooked.

Know that you are at a disadvantage by not having this conversation.

It is vitally important that you and your boss share a common view of your performance and your expectations for promotion and compensation, even if your boss does not drive this discussion.

Of the 20-something years I worked in a corporation for a boss, I did my own performance review 17 times, just to make sure that there were never any disconnects.

2. Understand how you and your role are perceived

It is important to know if you are perceived as a high, average or low performer. Don’t ever guess about this. There should never be any surprises about this. Find out.

Even in an economy where there are not a lot of raises going around, you still need to be communicating with your boss about your performance and what it is worth, so when there is money, you have done all the groundwork.

Also make sure you know how much your ROLE is valued by the company. For example you don’t want to be the superstar performer leading the support team for an obsolete product. You may be great, but need to move into a higher valued role to get a raise.

Once you confirm that you are a high performer then go on to build your case for what you want. If you are not perceived as a high performer – fix that first. Understand what it takes, and focus on adding value, before you start asking for things.

3. Discuss your raise as part of a business outcome

The basic premise here is:
If I do this, what is it worth to the company?

Here are some things you can say:

  • Last year, this is what I accomplished and this is my current compensation.
  • I would like to raise the bar for the upcoming year, and deliver more value to the company.
  • And If I were to add these additional business outcomes, exceed these goals, etc, would that be worth more to the company? How much more?
  • What business outcome would I need to accomplish that would be worth this level of pay, or this promotion?
  • Can we agree that if I deliver this, you will give me that?

4. Follow up on the specfics…

  • 9 months ago, we agreed on performance objectives which if accomplished would
    result in increased compensation.
  • I believe I have delivered on all of these and then some, and I also took on this additional project which has benefited the company by increasing our margin on this product line.
  • Do you agree? Can I get your feedback on my accomplishments? … (Assuming it’s very positive then…..)
  • Will you be increasing my compensation for next year, per our agreement?

If the answer is, No, for some reason outside performance, you need to get a next agreement.

As long as you keep focused on business outcomes, you are on the high ground.

  • If your hands are tied right now, I would like to understand the timeline of what is possible, and if it’s not a raise, is there [stock, bonus, promotion, etc.] that could be possible?
  • I’m very motivated, but I think you can understand that at some point this level of performance will be hard to keep delivering if it is not recognized by the company, what do you advise?
  • You have my commitment to keep delivering for you, but I can you help me understand what I can expect over time in terms of the company being able to hold up our prior agreement about my performance and compensation?

And my personal favorite…

  • If you were in my position, how long would YOU keep performing at this level with my current compensation?

What has worked for you?

If you have examples of how you or your people have asked you for raisies, and what works and backfires — please share in the comment box below!

—–
Patty Azzarello works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. She has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello

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