Successful Blog

Are Your Customer Relationship Management Skills Up to Par?

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If you see your sales numbers and return on investment (ROI) taking a significant dip as we near the midway point of 2012, perhaps it is time to give a second look to your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) skills.

Sit down and simply ask yourself as a small business owner what tactics you are employing to make the experience every one of your customers has better each time.

Among the steps that you should be employing:

  • Properly branding your product – While other companies scale back their marketing efforts when dollars get tight, others see the chance to take advantage of the tough times and gain an edge on the competition. When it comes to branding, it is more important than ever to make your product stand out;
  • Determine value to your customers – At times when consumers are concerned about their financial security as many have been in the last few years, they are in need of reassurance. Consumers are not likely to make binge purchases; many want the sense of making sensible purchases, control, security and simplicity, leading them to be more frugal when it comes to their buying habits;
  • Social media presence – Whether it is Twitter, Facebook or another venue, social media offers a great means to engage the customer and find out what they like and what they don’t. You may or may not want to employ someone in your business on a full-time basis to oversee this area, but at the least it should be attended to on a part-time basis;
  • Customer experience – Another main area to focus in on is the customer experience. Customers have a lot of options with which to choose from, so how are you going to set yourself apart from your rivals? The key here is making the customer experience worthwhile enough where they want to keep coming back time and time again. Do your employees put your customers first or are they an after-thought? Do your employees who work the phones treat the customers like they’d want to be treated, or are they short and rude with them? Finally, do your employees provide the necessary answer/s when a customer has a question about a product? Know these things and don’t take them for granted;
  • Customer rewards – Lastly, what are you doing to reward your customers for their loyalty to your business? A customer will continue to come back over and over again if they like the service and feel the prices are reasonable. It is important as a business owner to treat returning customers properly and reward them for their continued patronage, be it through special rewards programs like discounts and the like. There is a reason this particular customer came back to you for purchases, so never forget that.

Make customer relation management skills a top priority at your small business in order to better position you and your employees to reap the rewards.

Dave Thomas, who discusses subjects such as business plans templates and customer service call centers, writes extensively for San Diego-based Business.com.

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.

3 Things I Learned, Lost, and Earned Being Off Social Media for 10 Days

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People or Screens

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Every morning for almost a year, I’ve been publishing photos of the sunrise over Lake Michigan. Sometimes when the afternoon is worth a photo graph I also publish a photo of the sunset too. On Twitter I greet my friends with a “Good morning, Twitterville” and a kind word. I try to check in with them via Facebook and Linkedin too.

Many of my online social interactions help me keep my day moving … as I transition from one task to another, it helps me to stop by Twitter to give my friends a shout out or to take time for a short read and a retweet. Being social online is a natural part of how my day goes by when it’s just me and the keys.

But when I’m with people, I like to be with people.
I find it hard to be where I am, if I’m looking at at screen.

What I Learned, Lost, and Earned Being Off Social Media for 10 Days

The theme of #SOBCon this year was Creating and Leveraging Opportunity. I challenged myself to do what I believed.

  • Be balanced. In this case, have my head and heart in the same place as my mind and my feet.
  • Go deep. Be a saturation learner. Meet people where they “live and think.”
  • Build a business not a birthday cake. Allow for the fact that a business is not a closed system — that flexibility is a key component to strategy.
  • People ARE the opportunity. Buildings, companies, products, technology do not have the stability or the reach of human-to-human relationships.

Last Wed., May 2, I left home with a suitcase to head downtown in preparation for our annual #SOBCon event in Chicago from there I would be speaking at CMSExpo in Evanston to arrive back home on May 10th. But things being what they are it ended up that I was hardly around on social sites until the 12th.

Before I left, I loaded up my blog with the blog posts that I had planned for the week. I also loaded up my Twitter account with some great posts I’d been reading on other blogs — articles on small business, strategy, weird science, and cool brain stuff — my favorite information to share via tweets.

When I got down to the hotel, I did some last minute planning. I went over to the event center to check a few things and pick an HP Folio Ultrabook that the Small Biz Folks at Hewlett Packard had sent for me, thinking maybe if I set it up, I’d be able to Tweet some, or post some, or connect some like a good social media do-bee. I got the computer up and rolling in no time. It’s light, intuitive, and has a huge battery life — can’t say how long it lasts yet, because, well, once I got it going, I kept turning it on and then getting involved in other things.

And in the course of 10 days, here’s what I about social media, the Internet, and me.

  • The social is more important than the media. When the choice comes to talking to the people live and in person, take it! Be where you are. Look them in the eyes. Listen actively. What I saw and experienced in the richness of a hug, a tone of voice, smiles shared, and glasses clinked is something I carry back to the Internet. I hear the voices of those same people when I see them again this week on Twitter.
  • Being in the story is faster, easier, and more meaningful than reporting it. I can only speak for my experience, but seconds I spend trying to share something with people online turn me into a reporter. When I shed the reporter’s role, I see, hear, and feel so much more. I am mindful and present. I am also calmer, more flexible, and more fluent because I can attend to and respond to the world I’m in rather than trying to translate to the world I can’t see.
  • The Internet got along fine without me. As far as I know, no one suffered greatly by my absence. The world didn’t stop turning. I had no more than 3 “must respond to” emails daily – I’m just not THAT important.

What I lost is easy to measure …

Yes, my blog traffic went down a bit. I didn’t attract as many Twitter followers as I had in the previous 10 days. My stock price on Empire Avenue dropped. My stats on Facebook now need some attention. My email inbox took about two hours to get back in order.

Laura Fitton and Liz Strauss, SOBCon 2012 by @adrants

What I earned was more lasting …

Deep real connections.
Deep real memories.
A whole lot of learning and fun.

The actual business directly attributable to these particular 10 days outpace ANY 10 days ever.

Working or playing, showing up is most important.
How can they see you, if you don’t stop long enough to be you?

#justsayin’

Be irresistible.
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Buy the ebook. Buy the Insider’s Guide to Online Conversation.

10 Best Ways to Build An Email Marketing List

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An email marketing campaign is one prong in an effective marketing strategy. Email marketing lets you get the word out to clients and potential clients. The email format is especially conducive to sharing and referrals. It allows you to have a conversational interaction with your target market.

Making your email marketing campaign effective relies on a good email marketing list. The quality and size of your list directly impacts how effective the campaign is going to be. Building your email list, however, isn’t necessarily easy or intuitive. You might put up a sign-up form on your website, for example, and the find yourself discouraged when no one has signed up after several weeks.

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If you want to build your email marketing list, there are some specific things you can do to speed up and increase your success:

  1. Make it obvious. Put the sign-up form for your email marketing list smack dab in the middle of your website’s homepage. You want to capitalize on every little bit of traffic you can, and putting it off to the side just won’t do. If you really want to have a successful email marketing campaign, you need to make it a priority on your site.
  2. Don’t compete against yourself. Realize, of course, that if you’re operating a retail site you could be drawing views away from your store or sales process in order to pull someone into your email marketing list. For online retailers, using a secondary website to generate buzz for your primary site is a better place to put that marketing list.
  3. Incentivize signup. Give something away to people who are willing to sign up for your email marketing list. This should be something of real value, not simply a worthless token. Free reports are common incentives, as are discount coupons and contest entries. Just be clear about the fact that, in order to get the freebie, they’re also signing up for your email list.
  4. Ask for permission. Email marketing lists are most effective when they’re opt-in lists. That doesn’t mean you can’t use your existing list of email address, but it does mean you need to ask them to confirm any kind of subscription. It’s been proven over and over again that spammy email marketing campaigns that don’t use an opt-in are most often failures. Not only that, there are some pretty specific federal laws you need to be familiar with when it comes to spam, as well.
  5. Leverage real world resources. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, get your walk-in customers to sign up for your email list. Some of the most effective email marketing campaigns consist primarily of customers who have already visited your real-world store. Bring a signup sheet for your email list when you participate in community or networking events, as well.
  6. Be relevant. It’s one thing to get someone’s name on your email marketing list; it’s quite another to keep them on that list for more than one or two mailings. If the campaigns you’re using aren’t truly relevant and useful to your customers, they’re going to ask to be removed.
  7. Offer value. In addition to relevance, you need to offer real value to your list. If a customer gets some genuine use out of a mailing, they’re much more likely to share it with others. Word of mouth is a powerful way to increase subscriptions.
  8. Put social media to work for you. Your Facebook page fans and your Twitter followers should also be email marketing list subscribers. Those formats are great for building authority and rapport, and for interacting with your customers. Your email marketing list, however, is all about increasing sales.
  9. Follow all of the rules. Again, there are plenty of anti-spam rules out there. Know what they are, and follow them carefully. Violating those rules can be expensive, and even having to defend against a single accusation can take a sizable chunk of cash. Include unsubscribe information as well as real-world contact and identification information with each mailing.
  10. Honor unsubscribe requests. Although you hate to lose people from your email list, you need to respect their wishes. You’re using an opt-in model, which by its very nature means you have to allow them to opt out.

Email marketing can be one of the most effective types of marketing for your business. Making an email marketing list work for you means putting these methods into practice and doing so with both integrity and diligence.

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Author’s Bio:
Dominique Molina is President of the American Institute of Certified Tax Coaches, an organization of tax professionals who are trained to help their clients rescue thousands of dollars in wasted tax. In addition to her blogging and speaking engagements, Dominique provides tax training and accounting marketing as a registered educator with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA).

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

5 Social Media Marketing Lessons Learned from People’s Chatting Nicknames

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A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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Social Media Marketing is easy for those who understand the nitty-gritty of sociology and human’s need to share anything substantial, with their loved ones. Everybody likes to share, even the people who appear to be a little unsociable have this underlying desire to let somebody in on what’s going around in their lives. Any social media marketing campaign that manages to trigger this desire is sure to make it big. Sharing is made extremely easy by all those social networks out there, all you need to know is exactly why, when, and what people want to share with their friends, families, or colleagues. When looking for the answers, there are some invaluable lessons that you can learn by looking at the people’s nicks in your contact’s list (given that you have a fairly large one), let’s take a look at some of these lessons.

Like to share something inspirational:

People look to share whenever they come across something that touches their hearts in a positive way, giving them something good to think about, something to cheer, and something to help them see a silver lining in the dark clouds, that’s the reason you will see people using the phrases like “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it come true” or “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”. Therefore, if you can come up with an article, image, or video which is inspirational in one way or another, you will surely find people who are keen to share that with the friends.

Like to share something hilarious:

Another thing largely shared by people at social networks is anything which is downrightly funny. People love to share a good laugh with their friends, doesn’t matter if it is coming from a witty one-liner, funny incident, videos, or an article. Hilarious videos are one of the most commonly shared types of videos at social media and you don’t need to see any statistics for that. You can simply go to your Facebook page and take a look around. You will surely find a couple of funny videos shared by some of your contacts at any given point of time. Lesson for you; come up with something funny, which is directly related to the theme of your blog/website. It doesn’t necessarily need to be outrageously humorous, anything that brings smile to someone face will do.

Like to share something adorable:

That’s especially popular amongst the female users, apart from the nick names; you can see the popularity by looking at the number of views at videos with babies, pets, and the likes. To make the most of this trend, you need to offer something cute, anything having to do with family and the loved ones, something that ignites the feelings of love, affection, bonding, and care.

Like to share the ironies of life:

This is cynic’s reply to people sharing that cute stuff. You will often see nick names like “It may be that your whole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others” or even the more crude ones like “We are born naked, wet and hungry. Then things get worse”. It’s not easy to come up with something that true yet funny, but that’s probably the most commonly shared type of content amongst adults, especially if it has something to do with their profession.

Like to share something that’s closer to their heart:

At times you will see people keeping nick names, which are not funny, cool, witty, inspirational, or doesn’t even make any sense at all, the only reason for choosing these nick names over the more interesting ones is because there’s something that’s closer to their hearts. Lesson to be learned? Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and then try to come up with some slide, video, or article that they can relate to, something that’s directly related to their age group, profession, ambition, views, likes, or dislikes, and chances are that they will be sharing that with the like-minded people in next to no time.

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Author’s Bio:
Rahil is an Internet Marketing and social media expert. Feel free to visit his website and avail a yahoo domain code and coupon for midphase. In addition to these yahoo and midphase deals, you will find many different coupon codes and discounts for web hosting services.

Thanks! Rahil!

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

Be a Good Citizen

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A Guest Post by
Rosemary O’Neill

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Like it or not, it’s political season in the United States. We must sort through the debates, talking heads, and town halls, and do our duty as citizens.

There are clear rules to being a good citizen of the US. Obey the law and vote, and you’re pretty much good. Throw in some volunteering, and that’s even better.

Online, in the social world, it’s a different story. Depending on where you are, the rules are different, and often unwritten. It can be tricky.

But don’t fear, I’m here to give you some simple tips that will keep you out of the Internet version of Turkish prison. We’ll cover Twitter and LinkedIn today:

Twitter

  • Fill out your bio – it’s the equivalent of politely introducing yourself.
  • Replace the “egg” with an avatar – you don’t walk around town with a mask on, do you?
  • Don’t use auto-direct messages – unless you’re getting hundreds of new followers every day, you can spare 5 minutes to send a personal greeting.
  • Don’t order people to “like” you on Facebook – need I say that this is rude?
  • Vary your stream – don’t just be all retweets, all quotes, all broadcast. Throw in some mentions, replies, original thoughts.
  • Don’t follow hundreds of people at once – it’s best to grow your following organically, over time. Get to know them first, then add more. Also, if your ratio of following to followers is way out of whack, you look desperate.
  • Help people – if you see a Tweet like, “can anyone recommend a good Chinese restaurant in Phoenix” and you know one, jump on it!

LinkedIn

  • Go in with a plan, are you open or not – if you decide to accept invitations from people you haven’t actually met, you are a LION (LinkedIn Open Networker); most people do not accept invitations from strangers, so tread carefully.
  • Be a contributor – when you first join a group, don’t make your first post a “promotion.”
  • Webinar spam – likewise, don’t make your first contribution a webinar announcement.
  • Don’t direct-link your Twitter stream to your activity stream – if I see you in both places, I want different content; come on, it’s not that much work!
  • Answer questions – go to the Answer section and help where you can; remember your manners and thank people who answer your questions as well.
  • Be generous with your recommendations – this falls into the “good karma” category. Spread your good recommendations where they’re appropriate, without expectations. Trust me, it’s good.

If you keep these guidelines in mind, you’re well on your way to being a solid social citizen. And don’t forget to vote.

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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 their blog. You can find her on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss