How Your Business Will Benefit From A Loyalty Card Program
It seems like almost every business has jumped on the loyalty card program bandwagon. From grocery stores to pharmacies and restaurants, retailers everywhere are launching customer rewards programs.
Have you ever wondered why?
Sure, customers stand to benefit from participating in loyalty card programs. They get discounts, special offers and cash-back opportunities. But the benefits for retailers are just as great, if not better. Even with the cost of a loyalty gift card program, you still end up being a winner in the end.
If you’re considering launching a loyalty card program, here are some of the many benefits you’ll pick up along the way:
1. Better Data Tracking
Every time a customer swipes a rewards card, you’ll get a clearer picture of who is buying what. The data will allow you to examine shopping patterns and use the information to make better business decisions. For example, use the information to make better choices about product selections and inventory supply.
2. Improved Marketing
Armed with all the data you’ll collect from customers who fill out a rewards program application, you’ll be able to develop marketing campaigns tailored to specific groups. Offer customers special, personalized deals based on their age, interests or previous purchases.
3. Better Customer Retention
A few incentives go a long way in creating loyal customers. If your customers believe there’s something to gain from giving you their repeat business, they’ll come back time and time again. Simply by offering a coupon for $2 off the next purchase, you’re dramatically increasingly the likelihood that a customer will come back.
4. More Frequent Business
With a loyalty program, the more often a customer shops, the faster they can start claiming rewards. A customer who’s just $5 away from earning a $25 gift certificate might find an excuse to stop by your store. Customers who used to come in once a month might start coming twice a month or once a week.
5. Increased Product Awareness
Do you offer a valuable product that – for one reason or another – is simply sitting on the shelves? Maybe you’re a retail shop that specializes in handmade goods, but the greeting cards in the back of the store just aren’t selling. By offering items like these as incentives, you can promote items customers may not know you have.
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Are you Wasting Your Money on Mobile Emails that Don’t Work?
Email marketing is one of the most lucrative online channels. And it looks like the combination of mobile is a powerful team.
According to a recent report from HubSpot, “43% of people on mobile devices check their email over four times per day”.
That presents a huge opportunity to reach people instantly at any time, and any place. But the problem is that an email that looks great on your laptop will look terrible on a mobile device.
So you need to improve your email marketing, and make sure that what you’re sending will perform on any device. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting your time (and money).
1. Write a Killer Headline
The headline is the most important element of any email marketing campaign.
How important?
According to a recent study from MailChimp, average open rates are only around 10 – 30%.
That means that 70 – 90% of the people didn’t care enough about your headline to even open the email.
People today don’t have time. So they don’t read everything. They scan and only open things that look interesting. If your headline doesn’t grab their attention, then they’ll never open it. And the the first step to making more money with an email marketing campaign is by improving the open rate.
Start with Copyblogger’s guide if you need help.
2. Focus on One Goal
The screen on a mobile device is really small. You literally only have an inch or two to get your point across. So keep it really simple. Pick one goal for each email you send, and focus only on that. This will drastically improve your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) for that one element.
Most people try and put several calls-to-action in one email. They want people to click a link to their website, become their Facebook friend, and buy something all in one email. That doesn’t work on a tiny screen. And the goal of your email isn’t to sell. You just want to pique your reader’s interest enough so they click through to a landing page.
Once you have them on your mobile site, then you can worry about converting them.
About the Author: Brad Smith is the founder of FixCourse.com, a blog about online customer acqusition and how to grow your traffic, generate leads, and make more sales.
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How Can You Utilize Email Services to Manage Your Online Reputation?
As a professional that conducts any type of business online, the reputation you build is crucial to how you are perceived by your audience. The comforting part in all this is that whether it is good or bad is totally up to you. Now there are quite a few methods for keeping up with one’s image, but one tool you may not have thought about for this purpose is email marketing. This article will explain how you can use email services to manage your online reputation.
Control Your Content
The web is the largest hub for content there is. It is everywhere, and can be created in a number of ways. Content can be generated by you or others who have something to say about you. When user generation comes into play, your online reputation is instantly put on the line. You want to control as much of your content as possible, because the more you own, the better you will be at managing your reputation. Email services are perfectly suited for the task at hand. Whether it is a monthly newsletter, weekly tips, or daily deals, using such a tool right can give you a handle of most of the content you push through the internet.
Embrace Criticism
Even if your reputation is in fairly good shape, there still may be a need to perform a little maintenance from time to time. A perfect instance would be the moment you or your organization comes under criticism. There is nothing wrong with having a mixed reaction. After all, an overwhelming number of positive reviews could look suspicious to some. However, you don’t want the negative reviews to get out of hand, so addressing them is always a smart move. Email marketing gives you the platform needed to take control of the situation as it allows you to directly communicate with your audience. Regardless of what is being said, you can make sure they know the real deal by engaging them in an intimate, one-to-one setting free of outside interference.
Address Complaints
No matter what you do, you will find that making everyone happy is impossible. Members of your audience are bound to complain about something, but when it comes to what you’re doing online, their complaints are likely tied to areas you can make changes to. Publicly announcing these changes is an effective way to combat whatever damage those complaints may have had on your reputation. You can use email services to let customers know you have addressed the slow response times, malfunctioning links, or other problems that left them uneasy. Dealing with such issues is key in managing your reputation as a whole.
Ignoring your online reputation is probably the worst thing you can do, especially if you know that it has been taking a beating. Your presence is forever embedded in the digital space so don’t just expect it to go away. Luckily, email services exist to help you manage your reputation and keep it in good shape.
About the Author: Francis Santos is a writer and blogger for Benchmark Email and also the executive editor for Geek Peeks.
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Best Ways To Stop Micromanaging And Become Even More Effective
Professionals have a commitment to getting things done right, on budget, on time, first time. You can’t do that all your self so you assign tasks to members of your team, they try their best but they can’t see your vision and they’re not necessarily going in the direction you had in mind. Perhaps you need to take over or tell them how to do it your way.
Stop there!
You don’t buy a dog and chase your neighbours cats yourself so why have a team on side if you’re just going to do their jobs for them? Let’s assume you’re working with other professionally minded people, they have the same objectives as you do, they have skills which made them suitable for the role that they’ve been tasked with so, beyond keeping an eye on things, making sure your assignment isn’t going way off track, you don’t need to keep looking over their shoulders.
What you’re looking for is accountability. If your team know that they’re accountable for their work then they will put the effort in; take too much charge and you destroy that sense of responsibility. An employee who doesn’t fee responsible for their work doesn’t care if they do a sloppy job so by micromanaging you’re not making people do a better job, you’re actually making them do it worse!
Entrepreneur magazine published a list of the best SMEs to work for last year. Employees at 90 percent of these companies said that they knew their managers trusted them without looking over their shoulders while 92 percent say that they have a lot of responsibility.
But, like a bad habit, micromanaging is a hard thing to give up once you get started. Once people know that you’re going to be hovering there, watching their every move, picking up on every misstep before they’ve even had a chance to hit the backspace key they come to expect it. Once that starts to happen people are less likely to watch out for little mistakes for themselves because they know you’ll pick it up. You’ve just created an environment where mistakes are OK and responsibility is someone else’s job.
So How Can You Step Back?
First of all, hiring the right people is the foundation to an autonomous, successful team. If you genuinely have to look over people’s shoulders to check that they’re doing their job right, you’ve got the wrong people for the job. But that’s not always a bad thing. Introduce a training programme. Good training means that you’ll see your people working in a unified manner better than they ever did before. However, if you’re starting with the right team, a gang who take full responsibility for their work, are accountable, and good at their jobs just give them the brief and let them get on with it. If they have any questions, they’ll ask you.
Add a little peer pressure. Some people react very badly to being incorporated into a team. I’m one of them. I hate the idea of being in a group where success depends not only on my activities but the efficiency of other people. Instead of team building, make people accountable to one another. Encourage your staff to review each other’s work and progress, not as a critique but as a creative dialectic. You can steer brainstorming and ‘talk it through’ sessions in a general direction where good ideas become great ideas but good ideas are elusive, trying to force them just won’t work.
Be clear about what you want from the outset and don’t keep changing you mind. The best way to really irritate the people who’re working on your campaign is to constantly move the goalposts. If the objective really does have to change, talk it through in one of your progress meetings. Tell the team where they need to be directing their efforts and let them talk it out. Micromanagement is often the child of ill communication. If your role isn’t campaign based, set realistic, achievable targets for each quarter, talk to your staff about what they should be and how they are monitored and reviewed. Talking these things through not only gives your staff a clear sense of what’s expected of them and when, it gives you a chance to get a better understanding of your people’s skills and abilities meaning you can target tasks to suit individuals and see if indeed there are any skills voids which need addressing.
Wield the power of empowerment!
Like accountability and responsibility, a sense of power and control in decision making is an invaluable tool to the reformed micromanager! A direct complement to communication, empowerment makes people feel far more that they ‘own’ the campaign or project. Once they feel that it is theirs it becomes important and valuable to them. Taking votes on every decision that has to be made defies logic but making staff a part of decision making processes really is a great way of getting people committed to the company and the campaign (as do bonuses, regular pay rises and performance related prizes).
As I said above, breaking the micromanagement habit won’t be easy but trying out the suggestions one at a time will mean that you become a better manager with more time to deal with the things you should be dealing with and letting your team deal with the things they should be dealing with.
About the Author: @DanCash is a content manager and former press officer for a national environmental charity. Taking the pressure off through man-management, automation, fleet tracking and fixed asset software all makes time for you to concentrate on getting your own job done better.
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Four Benefits of Payroll Software for Small Business
In these current testing economic times many small firms will be looking to streamline their company and reduce unnecessary costs. One way to do this is to introduce new procedures into their organisations.
A key area in any company that should always be done quickly and accurately is payroll – because ensuring that employees get their wages paid on time, and correctly, can improve staff morale. It also means that the taxman is getting his fair share and reduces the likelihood of receiving a fine from HMRC for late returns.
So, what options are available? Well nowadays there are numerous software programmes that businesses can adopt and here are some of the benefits.
1) Time Saving
If a company invests in payroll software it can reduce the amount of man hours spent on this particular area – because the system is automated. This means that once a clerk inputs the initial data it will work out individual employee tax deductions automatically, until the original information is altered.
2) Recordkeeping
For firms that adopt this small business software it also means that they can keep on top of employee sick leave, holidays and personal time very efficiently. Furthermore, it means that those working in the accounts department can make reports with extremely accurate data rather than sifting through hand-written ledgers, allowing them to do their job more effectively.
3) Planning and reporting
This in turn means that company owners and managers are provided with the best data about their organisations’ funds. It also means that they can forecast labour costs that interact with budgeting and accounting programmes that allows them to make more calculated decisions on where to take the business in the future.
4) Saving money
Sometimes it’s important to save the best till last, and this is one of those instances. By adopting payroll software small firms can reduce the amount of positions needed in payroll as the system is automated – but because the technology is so efficient it means that money isn’t lost through paying the incorrect amount of tax or not paying staff on time.
It also allows businesses to streamline their procedures and processes, which can be an extremely important aspect during these troubled economic times.
About the Author: IRIS is a UK-based specialist business software provider that aims to improve the efficiency and performance of various processes for clients.
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Successful Mastermind Groups: 5 Vital Components
One would think that the shared intelligence of a group of peers should always yield exceptional outcomes, but we all know this isn’t the case. Besides Congress, an easy target, inutile groups abound. The NFL in 2011 almost torpedoed the best sports cash cow this country has ever seen. Simply assembling a group of people is NOT a prescription for Mastermind Group success.
So what are the key factors for Mastermind Groups to become exceptional?
Leadership
Every productive Mastermind Group has a successful leader, frequently called a facilitator, who helps to guide things, create process and protocol, fixes agendas, provide vision, and individually coach members outside of the group arena. Most Mastermind Groups develop with 3rd party facilitators, what members pay for, whose single purpose is the functioning of the group and not expanding his or her own company, although he or she may have one. Depending on the size of the group, usually no more than 12-15 member companies, a member leader may arise in any group atmosphere. This person complements the facilitator with the collective voice of the group. The most remarkable Mastermind Groups mature to the point where the facilitator directs meetings of the group and focuses on function, interchange, and private consultation while the group leads agenda, goals, self-charter and policing of members for contribution and commitment.
Diversity of Members
The whole point of mining collective intelligence is that it offers different perspectives and backgrounds than that of any individual member. Excellent Mastermind Groups make an effort to mix membership from a range of different industry verticals surrounding the like purpose of having top responsibility for the business. Competitors cannot be allowed without specific disclaimers because it will add to the dis-function and reticence of individual members and the group will be affected. If you research world business history, many of the most revolutionary achievements in a given industry stemmed from influences outside that industry that could bring added perspective, not shadowed by the poison knowledge of what cannot be done. This applies to the group facilitator also. The more diverse the background, leadership roles held, industries touched, and businesses worked for the better. This will nearly always top the Harvard MBA who has spent 20 years in one company with one job.
Member Dedication & Engagement
A great group is an active group with no wallflowers. Each member finds her own voice and best skill for contributing to the group and resolving other member issues. Members commit to the process, their own advancement, and the transcendence of the group into a productive body. They seek out chances to add to group tasks rather than hiding beneath their desks, with too many volunteers being the success problem the facilitator must manage. High-functioning groups police against member dedication and can vote to thin their ranks of those members just along for the ride without adequate devotion and contribution. Group meeting sessions are agreed upon beforehand and mandatory for members to be there and get involved.
Advanced Mastermind Groups also are constantly striving to improve themselves with high-performing members, and as such, each member of the group frequently serves as an evangelist and passionate recruiter of others in his or her business circle that would enhance the overall makeup of the group.
Hi-Value Opportunities
Involvement in a Mastermind Group costs real money. In exchange for that members need to receive minimally double the value in opportunities and results. This applies to education where the expertise applied far exceeds the financial investment, personal coaching that leads to actions for the member that drive high profits, and group interactions and connections that can have direct and indirect value as seen by the member. Any organized Mastermind Group should be affordably priced so it isn’t an impediment to entry, however still offers the financing to run the group with competent facilitators, technology and other sources to guarantee successful experiences. Cost of entry versus perceived value is frequently the reason more business executives and managers are NOT involved with any sort of Mastermind Group.
Typical business Mastermind Groups sponsored by large companies can call for a 5 figure plus annual expenditure for associates. This can eclipse the budget of eager but cash-strapped small businesses or entrepreneurial firms, each of which has the ability for large expansion and development in the Mastermind setting. Virtual-Mastermind.com has established a model that is FAR more reasonable for members to limit this barrier to entry.
Easy Involvement
The most significant barrier to involvement in Mastermind Groups is not financial. It is the luxury of time. The loss of time, as in time away from the chaotic, demanding office while working on the business with the group, tends to keep powerful business owners and CEOs away from Mastermind involvement. This time can be multiplied by travel time. For example, groups started by Vistage International must be situated near a major metropolitan area in order to validate a given market penetration. That often adds 2-4 hours of driving time to an already long day outside the office, and can turn what should be an enjoyable, beneficial event into one that has the pain of nuisance connected with it. That’s counter-productive. The most successful Mastermind Groups find ways to tackle problems such as this, eliminating pain and guilt of participation for members and leveraging time to provide great value in relaxed settings.
Your Own Group
If you’re considering participating or even launching a Mastermind Group, b sure that you care for the 5 key components: strong, broad-based leadership; associate diversity; member dedication; offering hi-value opportunities; and making it easy to participate for as many qualified business leaders as your group needs.
About the Author: Karl Walinskas is the CEO of Smart Company Growth, a business development firm that helps small to mid-size professional service firms build competitive advantage in an online world of sameness. He is author of numerous articles and the Smart Blog on leadership, business communication, sales & service, public speaking and virtual business, and Getting Connected Through Exceptional Leadership, available in the SmartShop. Get your FREE LinkedIn Profile Optimization eBook & Video Course, Video Marketing video and course, or Mastermind Groups e-course & video now.
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The Research Process in Logo Designing
What is Logo?
A logo is what makes your brand distinguished from others. Hence it is essential, to first recognize the main purpose of having a logo and then proceed towards its designing process. The finalized design process must aspire to make the logo instantly recognizable, stimulating trust, appreciation, reliability and an indirect dominance.
Significance of Having Logo
The logo is one facet of a company’s commercial brand or monetary entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images typically are noticeably special from competitor’s logos for capturing the market position. Logos play an active role for building your identity.
Value of Research for Effective Logo
It is recommended to carry out research on the industry for which you as a professional will be designing the logo. Study about the company’s history and its competitors. Problem-solve first and then proceed towards design phase. Some speculate what’s so tricky about creating a good logo. Looking at a glance a logo may seem to you as small and easy to do thing. But it is the end result which you are viewing and overlook the designer’s efforts which made it stunning. See, the first thing that you have to comprehend is that when you do some research to form your logo design, you don’t countenance any restrictions. If you generate one without any research your ideas will be very constricted or they can even be obsolete. So, it is essential to do some research earlier and discover new ideas for your own brainstorming session.
Inspirational Research
Perform research on logo Design that have been victorious and are designed using the existing styles and trends that may inter-relate to the design brief. It is suggested not to follow trends solely and forget the underlying theme. Research and design logo for completing client’s requirements rather than getting inspired and lost and remember longevity in logo designing is the key for having a great logo. Develop the logo design templates on the basis of your research. This is the solitary most imperative part of the design process. Moreover, it has been suggested by professionals to take breaks during the designing process. This assists your ideas in getting matured, replenishes your passion and allows you to seek feedback. It also gives you a brand new perception which will ultimately leads towards having the best logo design at the end of the day.
About the Author: Post submitted by Logoonlinepros
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Photo Credit: eriwst
An Introduction to Color Theory and Web Design
Color Theory, or in our case Color Psychology, is a field dedicated to unraveling the relationships between pure colors and their meaning to us. Its use has become widely spread throughout the design industry in everything ranging from photography to web design. If you’ve ever noticed how fast food restaurants are almost always red and yellow themed then you’ve begun to notice some color theory at work. Although you don’t need to be a color theory professional to design a web page correctly; knowing some of the basics is sure to help.
The first “rule” of color theory is that there aren’t any absolutes in term of color relationships. The emotions associated with any particular color or combination is subjective. While typical Westerners will think of white as a symbol of purity or innocence, it can also be perceived as a color for mourning in many Eastern countries.
When considering your web page’s color scheme and layout, it’s often best to consider what kind of feeling you wish to create from your audience. Do you want them to feel calm and secure, excited and energetic, confident, trusting, etc.? Determining which of these attributes you wish your website to exude is the first step in laying out your color pallet.
The “Big 4” Groups
Cool Colors – Blue, Green, White, Grey
Cool colors tend to have a calming effect and set off a tone of relaxation most often. Obviously not a website related example, but if you walk into a spa you’re most likely to see these colors because of the calming connotation they carry. Blue, in its various shades, is used very often as a color for corporations trying to relax a customer and make them feel at ease about the company at hand. Blue can also send a message of confidence depending on the vibrancy of it. If you were looking to associate your website’s feel with a vibrant, young, youthful premise then you might use a brighter blue. However, for an older, experienced feel you might consider using either a pale blue or a dark blue. Case and point from the 2008 election. Mr. Obama’s blue was used as a message to say that his campaign and consequently he himself are vibrant and full of change. Mr. McCain’s blue was chosen as a dark blue to say to voters that he is the time tested, experienced candidate that is capable of the job.
Warm Colors – Red, Pink, Orange, Yellow
The counterpart of cool colors, the warm variety, is usually used to excite a particular emotion or rouse a response. Most often a use of red is meant to draw your attention to a particular point that is trying to be made in plain sight, such as a discount or special sale. Because red easily overpowers cool colors, on the whole it isn’t used very widely in web design. A great example of the use of red is found at chromebagstore.com. It is the only color on the page and it is used specifically to create a sense of vibrancy for their product and direct your attention to particular areas on the site.
Mixed Warm and Cools – Purple, some Greens, Lavender, Turquoise
Mixed Warm and Cools can be the hardest colors to implement because their feeling is particularly ambiguous most of the time unless used in conjunction with other colors to solidify their meaning. These colors can easily take on the role of excitation of relaxation and it’s mostly dependent on the amount of colors that go into the mix. If for example a green had much more blue in it than yellow, as a forest green, this would be a good color to use both on a website that wanted a “natural” feel and to varying degrees for use in a calming setting. Its counterpart, a more yellow tinted green like “neon green” is explicitly an excitation type of color. Unfortunately, it rarely shows up in web design because as you move towards the yellow end of this color combination it becomes harder and harder to look at such a vibrant color on the screen.
Neutrals – White, Black, Brown, Beige, Ivory, Grey
If the previous three sets of colors are used to set various moods, the neutrals are the colors that pull the whole package together. Neutrals are best used as a unifying color to tie your entire color palette together and the majority of your site will be set in neutrals. In street terms it is simply annoying to look at a site splashed with color everywhere, but in all reality it is annoying because there is too much information being given to a user when too many colors populate a page. Some times, such is the case with Apple’s site; no colors are used in the layout of the site itself. This choice is coherent with their product’s zen-like minimalist aesthetic and makes for a consistent company image; however that is a topic for another time.
In practical terms, white, ivory and grey are often used to dictate the majority of web layouts because we are most familiar with reading black text on a white background. Some particular schools of thought suggest using grey text instead of black on white to break the contrast between the two and make the text softer on the eyes. Either way, this is more a product of our upbringing rather than explicit color theory itself.
What to choose?
While this article has attempted to give you an introduction to color theory, it is certainly not an end all be all of articles on the topic. Colors being as subjective as they are will evoke emotions from various crowds in ways you might not have imagined. When in doubt about the color palette you want to choose for your website, it’s not a bad idea to check out other websites that you like the color of and modify on a “theme” from there.
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About the Author: Jesse Funk is a long-time artist, designer, teacher and student of many things art. He currently is working on helping people design websites with a video series found at www.scholastechinstitute.com
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Reach Success: 5 Easy Ways to Increase Your Clientele
Establishing a solid customer-base is crucial for any start up or small business owner—after all, without any customers/clients, you make no money and without any money your small business will crash and burn. While hiring a strong marketing team can help you acquire a good number of costumers, this route can be pretty expensive. And naturally with any small business owner, funds are tight. But there are few things you can do on your own to help build your number of customers that is relatively cheap or even better, free. To learn how you can increase your clientele and help ensure the success of your business, continue reading below.
1. Do Research
First and foremost you need to get in touch with the needs of your target audience. You could be selling the most innovative product or service known to man but if you don’t know how to appeal and relate to your target audience’s wants and needs, your campaign may fall flat. For example, could your audience be hesitant about taking a chance on you because they are hard up for cash? If this is the case you need to directly state how your product or service is beneficial to your customer despite their economic hardship, which leads us to out next tip—
2. Offer Exclusive Deals
The truth of the matter is that consumers are always looking for a good bargain, especially now (during the holidays). To appeal to the masses, offer some discounts and exclusive deals to new customers or offer a promotional limited time-only offer to people already on your email list serve for example. You can offer an immediate discount or a next-purchase discount, you can offer a 2-for-1 deal, offer free shipping and handling, or even offer a free consultation or an introductory class. The goal is to find a way to persuade new costumers to try your product or service because the deal is irresistible (and of course superior than your competitors.)
3. Get on the Social Media Map
This is crucial. If you do not know how to use popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to self-market your business it’s time you learn now. Right now. The power of social medial isn’t going to dwindle anytime soon and these free tools are a great way to reach your target audience and establish your brand free of cost. In fact, even those that refused to give-in to social media in the past will be jumping on the bandwagon come the New Year. According to statistics, 40 % of surveyed small business owners said they finally plan on using social media in 2012.
4. Be Mobile and Tablet Compatible
If you’ve created a website or blog to get your name out there that’s a great start but it isn’t enough—it’s the age of the smartphone and the tablet and consumers must be able to access your website/blog through these devices. Your site has to be compatible. While some platforms will automatically convert, others do not and you may need to download a special plug-in like WpTap to make your blog compatible. And you’re going to want to make your site convert. After all, some experts predict smartphones and tablets will replace the laptop one day and since the latest figures say one-third of the U.S. population owns a smartphone and uses it for its remote mobile access, you don’t want to risk missing out on a pool of smartphone/tablet- using costumers.
5. Hire Ambassadors
Lastly you can hire someone to utilize the traditional “word-of-mouth” marketing technique by hiring someone closely related to your target audience. For example, if you created a product that is specifically tailored to college-aged students, then you can hire a few students at the campus nearest to you and get them to tell their friends and other students how great your products or service is. You wouldn’t have to pay them much (or you could offer free merchandise instead for example), but it’s a great way to dig in deeper and go straight to the source.
Of course these aren’t the only things you can do to expand your costumer-base, but it’s a start. Do some research and investigate all of the other resources that are available to you to ensure that you find costumers and keep them coming back.
About the Author: This guest post is contributed by Katheryn Rivas, who writes for online universities blog. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.
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4 Free Tools for Managing Your Small Business Finances
Every small business dream begins with the simple idea of making money while providing a needed product or service. As businesses evolve, their proprietors quickly learn that the product or service isn’t where all the effort is; tracking, managing, and even getting the money all take their fair share of work as well. While financial management can (ironically) be costly if you don’t have the right tools, there are plenty of free resources to help organize your business’s income, saving time and money. Keep your business on the right track (and out of debt) by taking advantage of these 4 free tools:
Mint
One of the most popular free finance tools is Mint.com, an online application that allows you to manage all of your financial accounts in one place. The clean, streamlined interface makes it easy to use, giving this tool major brownie points. Mint works automatically, pulling information from your checking, savings, investment, and retirement accounts, and displaying it visually with handy graphs and charts.
Beyond account monitoring, this tool helps you set a budget and financial goals, making it a valuable asset for any small business. The icing on the cake is Mint’s mobile device support and integration, enabling finance tracking on-the-go.
Sage Billing Boss
Who said invoicing had to be complicated (or costly)? This feature-rich invoicing system allows you to organize customers, track payments, and even collect money. You might be expecting a customer limit or an upgrade fee hidden somewhere, but all of Sage Billing Boss’s features—including unlimited invoices and customers—are completely free.
Built especially for small businesses, this tool integrates handy options like recurring invoicing, online payment tracking and quotes. If you’re looking to get organized and save time on small business invoicing, Sage Billing Boss might be all you need!
Google Wallet
Previously Google Checkout, this tool serves as a virtual wallet that securely holds your payment information for faster purchasing and better tracking. Google Wallet helps make light work of online purchases, storing your credit card and billing information for easy access when you pay through a merchant’s Google Checkout button. It offers fraud protection and even helps keep your email address confidential, keeping unwanted emails at bay.
Google Wallet’s latest feature is the ability to make purchases in-store using its mobile app; just tap the phone on participating credit card devices (at the time of this writing it only works with the Nexus S 4G phone).
Moneytrackin’
The key to staying organized is keeping relevant information together in one simplified location. That’s what Moneytrackin’ promises to do with its free online app. Keep tabs on income and expenses on all of your accounts, tagging transactions for easier grouping. If more than one person is involved with your business’s finances, you’ll appreciate the collaborative working capabilities this tool offers, including budget-sharing. This may not be as robust as Mint’s application, but it offers a clean-cut solution to organizing and keep track of your company’s finances.
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About the Author: Chris Turberville-Tully is a marketing strategist for Personal Touch Debt Solutions, a debt management company providing personal security, debt payment plans, expert advice and more.
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Photo Credit: Images_of_Money
Guest Posting To Help Grow Your Online Business
Guest posting is one of the fastest and most effective way to get a sudden increase in targeted traffic to your website when done correctly. There are two different sides to approach this from. One is from the point of getting others write guest posts on your blog or website and provide your readers high quality content that they will enjoy and the other approach is when you want to be you the one who provides content to other blogs or websites in exchange for links to your own website or blog. This is the prospective that we will be discussing here. This brings us to a very simple question.
What are the benefits of guest posting ?
The most important benefits are the following :
1.) Targeted traffic to your blog or website
2.) More opt-ins for your email list
3.) High quality back-links to your blog or website
4.) More name or brand recognition in your niche or market place.
As I said guest posting is probably the most effective marketing and traffic generation strategy that will not only help you get more targeted traffic, but it can also help you build your email list much faster than any other marketing strategy and become recognizable as an expert in your field.
The reason why guest posting can work so well is because if you do it correctly then you will be borrowing the influence, traffic and pagerank of an already established authority blog on your niche
Before you start using guest posting as a part of your marketing strategy you should first
make sure that your blog, website or offer converts. If you are just starting out and have not made any sales yet, then you may not be ready for this marketing strategy yet. The reason for this is that you have to be able to provide proven value to the readers and the blog owner that you worth to contribue on his/her blog.
Once you have proof that your blog or website is providing high value content and that your offer converts (at least some percentage of your visitors into buyers) then you are ready to look for other blog owners to work with. Your goal in working with another blog or website owner should be to give them a unique, high quality article that will provide something of value to their target audience.
This is what you will be offering them and in exchange you should be planning on receiving some of the above mentioned benefits of guest posting.
The way to go about guest posting is simple. Here are the steps that you should follow
Research
Select blogs or websites in your niche that complement what you offer without being in direct competition. For example if you are in the weight loss niche and you promote a weight loss product then you will want to target other health or fitness related websites that promote a different type of health or fitness product.
In addition you should also make sure that the blogs that you select are well established and get good steady amounts of traffic. One way of checking this is by using alexa to check a websites ranking and traffic volume.
Contact
When you decide which blogs you want to write a guest post for do not hesitate and contact the blog owner. Most blogs that accept guest posts have a page (usually the name of this page is “write for us”) with a form where you can submit your guest post and ask the blogger to review it and if he/she likes it to publish it. If there is no “write for us” page you can send an email using his contact information. Once you contact them and they are interested in using your guest post, you will then want to verify when the post will be published and how long it will remain on their site.
Promote your Guest Post
After your guest post has been published and you verify that there is no problem, you should start promoting it thru your social media networks, blog or even your email list in order to generate as much traffic to this your guest post as possible. Bloggers love to see their post being shared and will certainly apreciate your effort. Another thing you should do in order to get the most of your guest posts is to respond to any comment readers write, in that way you will get even more traffic and backlinks.
Once you have successfully implemented these steps you can repeat the process as often as needed to help you continue to grow your business and income as well.
About The Author: Kostas Chiotis is an economist and entrepreneur both in the online and offline world. You can find his blog at OpportunitiesPlanet.com where you will discover a lot of useful information about freelancing, internet marketing, online opportunities, guest posting and much more by subscribing to OpportunitiesPlanet.com RSS Feeds…
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How to Build a Platform
We have entered a new age—the Age of the Platform. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google (aka the Gang of Four) have done nothing less than introduce a fundamentally new way of doing business. Think about it. Odds are that you use at least one of these platforms on a daily basis—and millions of people use each of them regularly.
So, how can you build a platform for your business?
Defining Our Terms
Before answering that lofty question, let’s get two key terms straight. The word platform has become a buzzword, often misused by pundits, thought leaders, and media types. In the book, I define planks as integrated features, services, or offerings of a platform. A platform, then, is merely a series of integrated planks. For instance, the iPad isn’t a platform; it’s a merely a plank in Apple’s platform—and a really profitable one. The Google platform is comprised of Gmail, Maps, search, Docs, search, and a bevy of other planks.
What’s more, in this new age, the following hold true:
- Every business stands to benefit from developing its own platform, planks, and ecosystem.
- Benefit from utilizing existing platforms and ecosystems. In fact, you should use them as planks in your own platform.
- All else being equal, companies that have embraced platforms and planks will fare far better than those that have not.
Now that we have defined our terms, let’s move on.
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel: Use Existing Platforms as Planks in Your Own
Thinking of launching a new product or writing a book? Sites like Kickstarter allow would-be entrepreneurs and authors to test their ideas in advance. Think collaborative commerce. In a very short period of time, you can create a multimedia webpage and attract contributors.
The same principle holds true with launching your own social network. To be sure, you can use Ning or another private network—and there certainly are benefits to doing so. But these days its downright silly to ignore the 800-lb gorillas: Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, and Twitter. These sites can be effective ways to build your platform since millions of potential customers and users frequent them.
Ditch that 90s Site
In my last book, The New Small, I wrote about small businesses with primitive, text-based, downright ugly websites. I refer to them as 90s sites because, well, they look like they were built in the 1990s—and not updated since.
Content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, and others are more platform-friendly. This means several things. First, you can more easily add planks such as blogs, plugins, widgets, integrated social networks, podcasts, videos, and the like.
What’s more, these CMSs scale exceptionally well. I run a bunch of WordPress sites and there’s no practical limit on the number of pages and blog posts I can add. I can blog five times per day if I want. And these CMSs are incredibly user-friendly. That is, you need not be a proper developer to create a robust, modern, inexpensive, compelling, and interactive website.
Be Patient
In the book, I contend that anyone can build a platform; they are not the sole purview of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google. And I should know. I build my own over the past three years. While I won’t be selling more books than Amazon anytime soon (dare to dream, right?), I am doing better than I would if I had no platform—and no planks.
Because anyone can create a platform, don’t expect yours to explode overnight. Onlyi Charlie Sheen can open a Twitter account and sign up 4 million followers. (And for many reasons, you don’t want to be him, right?)
There’s saying about poker that’s apropos to building a platform: you can learn to play in five minutes but it takes a lifetime to master. Keep adding planks. You’ll get there.
Feedback
What say you?
About the Author: Phil Simon is the author of four management books. His fourth, The Age of the Platform: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google Have Redefined Business, is his most ambitious yet.
A recognized technology expert, he advises companies on how to optimize their use of technology.
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Why You Should Use Free eMail Marketing to Keep Sales Going Beyond the Holiday Season
Businesses of all kinds are giving free email marketing a try for first time. Many have decided to give it a go with the goal of cashing in on the shopping frenzy that accompanies the holiday season. This is easy to understand when seeing how it is great for keeping in touch with customers, enticing them with offers, and providing stellar after-sales service as well. If you are thinking about abandoning this tool once all the shopping is done, get it out of your head. This article will explain why free email marketing has value that goes beyond the holiday season.
It Fits in the Budget
Some businesses will give email marketing a whirl for the holiday season. Several will throw in the towel and go back to what they were doing previously. Why? Because they can’t fit the extra expense into the budget. Even though email marketing is very cost effective, it is another expense, one that some businesses cannot justify in this economy. If a strained budget is what attracted you to free email marketing in the first place, then you should definitely keep at it when the holiday season wraps up. You can use this tool to support a sizable portion of your overall marketing needs, and invest in other critical areas with the money you save.
It Still Drive Sales
Although many of the big sales end once Christmas comes to a close, the shopping continues for some time after. In fact, some retailers enjoy even more sales once the holiday season officially ends by cleaning up on the leftover traffic. During the months of January and February, stores are often packed full of people who are redeeming gift cards and taking advantage strategically timed sales offers. Free email marketing can keep you in touch with these ambitious consumers. Whether you are trying to get rid of your last bit of inventory from the holiday, or move a line of entirely new products, it can keep them connected with whatever you’re selling.
It’s a Great Learning Tool
What were the results of your holiday email program? Was it an overwhelming success, or did you come out of it feeling like your strategy was in need of some fine tuning? If you thought the results could have been better, sticking with free email marketing is probably the best thing you can do. The more you continue to use it, the more familiar you will become with aspects such as campaign creation, list management, and tracking. By the time the next holiday season rolls around, you could potentially be a seasoned email marketer with the savvy to take on the world, or at least your target audience.
Who Needs Free Email Marketing?
Free email marketing does not discriminate. It can be an ideal solution for a small business, a large enterprise, a non-profit organization, or an entrepreneur with only a handful of clients. Find the right service provider, and it could be the solution that enables you to thrive year-round.
About the Author: Aidan Hijleh is a freelance copywriter and serves as the Non-Profit Partnership Liaison for Benchmark Email. Aidan advocates free email marketing services to assist with the flourishing of grassroots organizations.
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5 Ways To Ruin Your Business Rep With Email Marketing
As a small business owner, you know what it means to have to fight for your share of the market. Competition is everywhere and you only have a few chances to set yourself apart to show that you are the company that deserves attention.
So what sets you apart from the next guy? I would say that the two things a business should be judged on are it’s products, of course, and it’s level of customer service. That’s always important!
But take a step back and think, what do you get when you combine those two elements? What do your consumers really consider before they choose who to do their business with?
Reputation. That’s what it all boils down to.
If your company has a good reputation, any number of small sins can be forgiven, and you can be sure that you’re in good standing with most, if not all, of your customers. On the same hand, if your company has a rep that’s the equivalent to an Atlantic City loan shark, well, odds are, you aren’t going to be in business very much longer.
So, what does this have to do with email marketing?
Well, people can tell a lot about a company by how they market themselves, and with email marketing being one of the most effective options for small businesses these days, it’s important for you as a small business owner to make sure your email marketing campaign isn’t hurting you when it should be helping.
Here are a few examples of what NOT to do. Avoid these hazardous practices, and you’ll be on your way to not only a successful marketing campaign, but a successful business.
Start Fresh
An email marketing campaign needs one thing to get off the ground – emails. Now, gathering emails can be a tricky business, and, of course, while everyone wants to get their marketing campaign up and running as soon as possible, buying a pre-gathered email list is pretty much not allowed.
Think of it this way: you will be sending emails to people who never asked for them. I’m sure part of that sounds great, I mean, who wouldn’t want a crack at roping in new customers, but what it looks like on the customers’ side of the street, is SPAM, and nobody trusts a SPAMmer.
Double Opt-In
I hate to sound like a broken record, but this helpful little hint is very closely related to the last one, and will go a long way when it comes to separating you from the SPAMmers out there.
Always use the double opt-in method when gathering email addresses. Basically, all the double opt-in method entails is sending everyone who subscribes to your mailing list a confirmation email, making sure that they signed up on purpose. If you don’t use double opt-in, you are opening yourself up to SPAM complaints which, like I mentioned above, are one of the quickest ways to lose your customers trust and ruin your rep.
If You Love Them, Set Them Free
People get antsy when they don’t have options. Just because someone signed up for your email a year ago, doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to keep getting it this year. Make sure that each and every email that you send has an easy to see “opt-out” link (usually at the top or bottom of the email). Again, if you don’t give your subscribers this option, you are treading dangerously close to SPAM territory.
Tell The Truth
Another way to ruin your business’s rep is to go back on promises that you’ve made to your subscribers. Anything that you tell your readers, from the length of a warranty to a product description to the amount of times they will be receiving an email from you, is a form of promise. Once you start breaking those promises, you may as well say goodbye to whatever reputation you had.
Keep It Fresh
The very first thing you learn when you enter the world of email marketing is: Content is King.
Everyone knows it. Some version of that phrase is in pretty much in every email marketing guide and article that has ever been written.
Why?
Because it’s true. The minute you start sending out sub par content is the minute your readers begin to lose interest in you, and your business will become stagnant, stale, and out of date. If you want to keep your reputation strong, deliver the fresh content every time.
About the Author: Daniel Cassady is an experienced freelancer, guest blogger, and frequent contributor to a blog hosted by Benchmark Email, one of theworld’s global email marketing company.
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Photo Credit: chintermeyer
Happy Holidays May Be Better Than Merry Christmas
As a business owner, you understand how important it is to be accepting of your customer’s various beliefs and ideas. While you may have different beliefs or ideas, when it comes to making a good impression on your customers, accepting theirs is vital. At the holiday season, you may want to avoid the overtly religious cards in favor of more generic options.
Know Your Audience
To you, the greeting “Merry Christmas” may seem completely innocent. However, some people are sensitive to the underlying religious connotation of this greeting. If they do not celebrate Christmas, but rather celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, they may feel put off by a traditional Christmas card.
One way to avoid offending someone on your holiday list is to tailor your cards to each customer. If you know the religious bent of your customers, you can send an appropriate card. It will make a tremendous impact on your Jewish customers, for instance, if you specifically target them for a Hanukkah card, rather than a Christmas or generic holiday card.
This, however, is quite time consuming, and may not be possible in a business where you do not have that level of personal information about your customers. You will have to evaluate whether the potential benefit you could receive is outweighed by the additional time and effort you would have to expend to personalize your greeting this way. The answer may depend on the size of your mailing list. In instances where personalized attention is just not practical or possible, a generic holiday card may be a better option.
Generic Can Still Work
If you decide to go the generic route, you still need to pay attention as you select your card. A card that says “Happy Holidays” may still have a holiday specific picture on the front. Safe images are peaceful winter scenes, pictures of wreaths or other generic holiday décor, and even doves with an evergreen branch in their mouths.
These rules may not apply to your business if it is a religious based business. A church or Christian bookstore, for instance, can safely assume that most of its customers, if not all of its customers, follow a similar set of beliefs. Thus, sending religious holiday cards is safe and probably expected.
Even if you must go generic, be attentive to the quality of the card. Generic does not have to equate cheap. Take the time to find quality, yet appropriate, cards so that you can effectively reach your customer base at the holiday season, regardless of their beliefs.
About the Author: Monique Trulson works for eInvite invitations, an online retailer of holiday cards for business, destination wedding invitations, party invites, announcements and more.
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