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An attitude of abundance

August 4, 2016 by Rosemary

“When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger.” Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

When you wake up tomorrow morning, tell yourself: “I am enough, I have enough, there is enough for everyone.”

It’s true.

You can refer customers to competitors who are a better fit, because there are enough customers out there for everyone.

You can focus intently on what that customer is trying to say to you, because you have plenty of time.

You can be ready to walk away from the table when you’re negotiating, because you have a lot of confidence.

You can sit in silence and allow creativity in, because there’s ample time for inspiration.

You can share your resources with a colleague, because then you both have double the resources.

You spread your best ideas freely, because there will always be more coming from your idea factory.

You can attract more customers, because generosity and confidence are magnetic.

Sometimes it’s difficult to stay in that state of mental abundance, especially if you’ve been through a traumatic experience. If you’ve previously had to shutter a business, or make it through a financially rocky time, or lost a key customer at the wrong moment, you know that strong urge to gather your marbles close and hide somewhere.

The irony is, you have to do the opposite.

I’m not usually a fan of “fake it till you make it,” but in this case it’s crucial. By acting as though you are in abundance, you will make it become real.

And it’s not an attitude of “I don’t care, because there’s plenty.” It’s “I’m focused on what’s truly important, because there’s enough for everyone.”

Running a business is a daily renewed commitment to yourself, to your family, and to your customers. If you go in daily with an attitude of abundance and joy, you’ll create wins all around.

Featured image via Flickr CC: FolsomNatural

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Establishing Your Blog as a Leader

August 3, 2016 by Thomas

There are many ways for your business to stand out from all the rest.

That being the case, what have you been doing to take your brand to the next level? Specifically, how is your blog entering into this conversation?

While some businesses drop the ball when it comes to their blogs, many others take the ball and run with it.

For your brand to be exposed in front of as many eyes as possible, your blog needs to be a top priority in your daily initiatives.

So, are you ready to establish your blog as a leader? If so, how will you go about that process?

Outside Help Can Make the Difference

In order for your business blog to really gain traction on the Internet, you need to remember these tips:

Authority – Put the onus on establishing authority when it comes to your blog. In doing so, you lend more credibility to your site, not to mention your brand as a whole. That authority can be improved dramatically when you have an outside guest posting service helping you with not only writing your blog content, but also marketing it. When you turn to those with the experience in guest posting, you take the pressure off you and/or your staff to come up with killer content day after day. That guest service can also handle the marketing and social media needs your blog so dutifully requires, again, removing a burden from your shoulders;
Resonate – Today’s consumers have myriad of online sites they can turn to for information, so why should they visit your site? Give them a reason, in fact; give them multiple reasons to pay attention to your site, notably your blog. Your goal should be to serve as the go-to site when consumers need information and/or are considering shopping. For example, if you run a home improvement business, your blog should be chock-full of details regarding the latest trends in home renovations, what the typical costs are for the common home improvement projects, what time of the year might be best to do them (especially when it comes to outside projects), and how to go about hiring the best help if you are unable to do the project on your own. When that kind of information resonates with consumers, you are likely going to be the beneficiary, landing more business as a result;
SEO – You can’t get too far these days as a business owner without knowing something about search engine optimization. With SEO in your corner, you can better your chances of improving your search engine rankings, notably on Google. Just as with the writing of your blog, you may be a little green when it comes to knowing all the intricacies of how best to use SEO. If so, that is where a consultant can provide much needed assistance. He or she can help guide you in improving your current search engine ranking. Remember, while you’re not likely to go out of business with a low search engine ranking, the higher it is, the more eyes will find your business when searching for your respective products and/or services. In hiring the right SEO mind, look for not only someone with a mound of experience, but also someone willing to put you first. If they’re just using you to cash your checks, move on. The right SEO consultant will not only be beneficial to your blog, but he or she can assist you with your social media needs and so much more.

Sure, your sales and advertising/marketing initiatives typically get top billing, so your blog may be a bridesmaid so to speak.

What you want to do if you haven’t already, turn that bridesmaid into a bride.

Give your blog the love and care it needs in order for it to reward you.

Those rewards will typically come in the form of more website traffic, oftentimes translated into more revenue when all is said and done.

If you have not established your blog as a leader up to this point, change course and do that sooner rather than later.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

About the Author: Dave Thomas writes about business topics on the web.

6 key content marketing ideas for small businesses on a budget

August 2, 2016 by Guest Author

By Jessica Davis

Content marketing has been blowing up over the last few years. Most companies already have a content marketing strategy in place, or are planning to implement one. Small businesses struggle to come up with a content marketing strategy that is compliant with their budget as well as goals. Competition within the industry has driven the cost of content marketing up but small businesses can still keep up. For small businesses with tight purse strings, here are some ideas that can help you shine.

1. Start Sharing

Content marketing relies on sharing; everything from views to visitors to sales depends on it. Without good social media presence and sharing, your content will only be read by those associated with your company. It is necessary to share your social media content at least 5-6 times a day and build good relationships.

If you can’t spare the time to create it, curate it with a good curation tool like DrumUp or Feedly for content discovery. Engage with people who comment on your posts and take their feedback constructively. Employee advocacy and influencer marketing are also excellent ways to help you spread the word with your content.

2. Know Your Target Audience

The first part of a content marketing strategy involves figuring out who your ideal viewer is and how your business can provide value to them. The more accurate your target audience persona is, the more likely you are to get ahead. Target audiences can be defined by various characteristics like location, occupation, age, gender, race etc. Some of these characteristics are obvious. For example, most fashion brands target women of all ages starting from teens to older women. This is because they tend to do the most shopping both for themselves and their families.

Depending on your niche, you will find common characteristics are easy to find while others need detailed research.

3. Do the Research

Now that you know whom to target, research the kind of content you should be creating. This content has to appeal to your target audience and intrigue them. Your research should also include going through more successful companies’ content and getting ideas.

Content curation is also a great way to gauge what kind of content works best for your audience. There are tools that make content curation on social media simple and effortless. Social media trends are another good indicator of the topics you should cover. Keep an eye on the hashtags and discussions related to your industry and gather ideas from them.

4. Commit to a Blog

Blogs are a must for content marketing. They provide great value for your readers and improve your SEO efforts. The deeper the blog content, the better it is for SEO. Content marketing relies on search engine rankings as users tend to visit sites at the top of the search results. Make sure your business website has a blog page that is easily accessible to visitors.

While creating blogs, give good information that helps your readers solve daily problems. Doing blog posts just for the sake of it will get you nowhere in terms of gaining recognition and credibility.

5. Create Compelling Content

This is one area where marketers must let go of their budget in return for quality content. Businesses need to hire good writers that are experienced in their field. Check to see if they have done this kind of work in the past and evaluate it. Hiring sub-par writers can hinder content marketing efforts as the content is the main part of your campaign. Visitors that you gain through social media and other marketing efforts will leave if the content is disappointing.

6. Include Strong Visual Content

Since social media evolves at a rapid pace, visual content including images and videos are a great way to get your audience hooked. Like written content,if you plan to involve visual content as part of your campaign, then you must be willing to spend money. Hiring good designers for images and multiple staff members for videos will require investment. Infographics with relevant and interesting stats also have an impact on your audience.

Content marketing strategies need to be planned carefully. You have to remember to plan carefully and not come off as too pushy. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and create content to address their problems. The main goal of content marketing is to use content to spread brand awareness and consequently, improve the bottom line. Keep this is mind while devising and executing a content strategy.

Author Bio: Jessica Davis is a Content Writer with Godot Media – a leading Content Management company. She has years of experience in working closely with online businesses, helping them refine their marketing strategy through optimum use of content. Her other interests, besides online content strategy, copywriting and search engine optimization, are technology, sports and even fashion.

Featured image via Flickr cc: Little Calpurnia!

“Liz’s account is searingly honest . . .” says @AJLeon #LizBook

July 31, 2016 by Jane Boyd

We asked our good friend AJ Leon, Founder of Misfit and author of The Life and Times of a Remarkable Misfit to review Liz Strauss’ soon to be released book Anything You Put Your Mind To.

AJ had many great things to say about Liz’s book — including these words:

Liz’s account is searingly honest and her writing is compelling and lyrical.

AJ - Liz's account is - instragram (2) — Click to Pr-Order Your Copy Today!

Anything You Put Your Mind To is being published by GeniusShared Press on September 21, 2016. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.

Great Websites Mean Business

July 29, 2016 by Thomas

How much time and effort do you put into your website?

For some business owners, the answer to that question is simply not enough.

Even though many of them know how important their websites are to their brands, they simply fail to interject themselves into the process. As a result, they are oftentimes missing out on revenue.

So, what can you do as a business owner to make sure as many consumers as possible are seeing what you have to say and offer online?

Spend the Time and Effort Needed Online

So that your brand can get maximum exposure online, remember the following tips:

Website design – First and foremost, your website is your online business card, so it can’t afford to flop. Do periodic reviews to make sure the site is clicking on all cylinders, especially when it comes to design and content (see more below). As for your design, you want a site that is appealing to consumer eyes, not one that makes them want to come and go in less than a minute. Whether consumers are doing a license plates search, real estate hunting, searching for home remodeling tips, travel bargains, you need to make them feel welcomed. Always be sure to keep a design that doesn’t feel like one must work their way through a maze. If your site is loaded with bad links, pages that seem out of order in terms of the flow etc. you stand a good chance of not getting those consumers back again;
Website content – Your content is the backbone of your website, so don’t drop the ball here either. As for your content, it needs to be fresh and authoritative. Produce content in your blog for starters, content that is going to resonate with as many consumers as possible. For example, consumers coming to your site for information related to vehicles of all kinds (buying vehicles, license plate searches, selling vehicles, registering cars and trucks etc.) want to know what the latest trends are in these areas. If now is not a good time to be selling used cars and trucks, explain why that is in a post or two. You can (and should) also include references and comments to authorities in this particular industry. Also make your content available not just on your site, but other relevant sites too. If unsure on how to go about this, you simply look to provide guest blog posts for other related websites. In return, you offer those individuals the opportunity to provide you with relevant copy to post on your website. The sharing of content is a smart move for several reasons, most notably because it puts your content in front of more eyes when all is said and done;
Social media – Part of having a great website is getting consumers and other businesses to recognize it. You can accomplish that goal when you promote your offerings on social media. If you do not already have them, create pages on sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google+ etc. In doing so, you have platforms with which to promote your content. Even though you do not have to be using social media 24/7/365, you can’t use it on occasion, especially if you want to make an impact with the public. Set aside time daily to work on your social media promotions. Once you share your blog posts and other relevant links on social networking sites, always make an effort to engage with those consumers (and others) commenting on your offerings. This engagement will help you not only further potential relationships, but it shows you to be a business that is listening to what the public has to say. In today’s busy world, that engagement can oftentimes be the difference between getting new customers and missing out on them.

Yes, you have plenty to do as a business owner, so it can be easy to let your website slip down a few notches on the list of important things to focus on day in and day out.

That said never let your website be the lost child.

With a sound website strategy, you show you mean business, all the while getting new business too.