3 Ways to Get Your Marketing Materials Noticed
Your business’s marketing materials aren’t cheap, so if you’ve invested time and money into having professional brochures, pamphlets and other resources developed, why risk having them tossed into the trash by a well-meaning, but careless mailroom clerk?
The unfortunate reality is that most business people these days are so pressed for time that it takes a Herculean amount of effort to get your marketing materials into your prospects’ hands. So if you’re struggling to get your promotional content noticed, check out the following tips on how to stand out and get your materials read!
Technique #1 – Mail your materials via Fedex
If you really want to get a prospect’s attention, send your marketing materials via Fedex or UPS Next Day Air. Think about it – if you received one of these high priority envelopes, is there any way you’d even consider tossing it into the trash unopened? Chances are, you’d not only open the package, but also make a note of how much the sender obviously values your opinion.
Yes, sending your brochures this way isn’t exactly cost-effective, which is why it’s important to save this strategy for truly important prospects. However, if you’ve identified a great opportunity to pitch a potentially high value prospect, use priority mail services for your marketing materials to show how committed you are to the deal.
Technique #2 – Use hand-written addresses on padded envelopes
There’s something about receiving a padded envelope with a hand-written address printed neatly on the front that makes us subconsciously think back to care packages received at summer camp or in the college dorms. In some cases, these happy associations make it more likely that your package will be opened and read, versus tossed into the recycle bin alongside other unsolicited mailings.
As an added bonus, this technique isn’t nearly as expensive to implement as mailing your materials via priority mail. Padded envelopes can be purchased online in bulk at extremely low prices, while mailing them at the USPS Parcel Post rate can save you even more money.
Technique #3 – Deliver your materials in person
Delivering your materials in person isn’t always feasible depending on where you’re located in relation to your customer base. But if you’re able to, know that dropping off your materials off in person increases your odds of getting past the gatekeepers (namely, your prospects’ secretaries and mail clerks) who are tasked with keeping out uninvited promo pieces.
To make this strategy as efficient as possible, make a day out of it by scheduling a route that reaches various prospects who are located in a similar geographic area. Call ahead to find out to whom you should address your materials and ask to speak to that person when you arrive at each office. Even if you aren’t able to get a “walk in” appointment to meet your prospect face-to-face, you may find that simply being there demonstrates enough interest to get your materials read by your target client.
What techniques have you used in the past to get your marketing materials noticed by busy prospects? Share your techniques and advice in the comments below!
About the Author: Thunder Pack is an online wholesale packaging superstore where you can purchase all of the packaging supplies you need at real wholesale prices. Whether you’re interested in our extensive line of cardboard boxes or our high quality padded envelopes, find out how our exceptional customer service ensures our store stands out as the number one wholesale packaging provider in the UK.
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LinkedIn Marketing for B2C Companies – The Audiences on LinkedIn That Will Double Your Sales Guaranteed
During a presentation that I was giving at a small business owner’s boot camp, I was asked a very interesting question by one of the attendees:
“I am a real estate agent and I am not sure how LinkedIn can help me since it is a business to business platform and I am targeting consumers and homeowners. Should I be focusing just on Facebook which is more consumer oriented? And, if I should be on LinkedIn, how can I best utilize it to help me obtain more business and clients?”
My Answer to How Business to Consumer (B2C) Companies Can Use LinkedIn Marketing
One of the biggest advantages of using LinkedIn if you are a B2B business is being able to access targeted prospects. Now, it’s quite difficult to do that if you are a B2C company as business professionals are there for these purposes:
¨ Build and cultivate profitable relationships
¨ Get the information they need to develop.
However, that doesn’t mean you should not be using LinkedIn marketing and just stick to Facebook and Twitter. Use Facebook and Twitter to build your community of prospects – but use LinkedIn marketing to attract these three audiences that can double your sales guaranteed:
Media Professionals – A recent study showed that 92% of all journalists are on LinkedIn which is more than any other social networking site. This means that you have more access to individuals who are looking to quote experts like you or publish articles regarding your industry and how you can help your prospective clients. By reaching out to these journalists you can develop meaningful and valuable relationships as they will come to think of you as the expert in your field and ask for your information when they are putting together their next piece. This extra publicity will give you more exposure to even more prospects and enhance your credibility so prospects will want to buy from you.
Referral Sources – Through LinkedIn you can build and enhance relationships with key influencers who can provide you with access to prospects you would otherwise not have known, met or done business with. A referral source is a valuable tool because it is a third party endorsement and they can act as your sales agent as they want to give their customers and clients more value.
Larger companies that offer products or services that are supplementary to yours – Smart companies are always looking to increase their revenues by giving their clients and customers more value. Think of the different companies and organizations that can add your products or services to their own at a premium price – and use LinkedIn to build relationships with the different company’s executives.
Your Next Steps…
Figure out who would be the best referral sources, key influences, types of media and companies for you to connect with. For example, one of my newest LinkedIn Profile Makeover clients is a real estate agent who is an expert on short sells, foreclosures and troubled properties. Before we completed her profile, we had her brainstorm who would be the best referral sources which include:
¨ Divorce attorneys – In a divorce couples often have a house to sell. Couples also have other traditional real estate assets that often have to be sold in a divorce. Plus, at least one of the parties in a divorce will need to relocate – meaning they’ll need to buy a new house.
¨ Local bankruptcy attorneys who have clients who have no other choice
but to either short sell or go into foreclosure
¨ Florida attorneys that represent HOA’s s so my client can help them with the rental of the property, property managementt and eventual short sell
¨ Accountants who can refer clients to sell their residential or commercial properties to avoid further liability and eventual foreclosure
¨ Financial planners, estate attorneys and probate attorneys who want to give homeowners relief from their unexpected financial burdens
¨ Banks who want to sell their foreclosed properties in the shortest amount of time with the highest net to them
Create a LinkedIn profile that is written for the referral sources and media you want to attract starting with your headline. In the headline, identify the audiences you want to connect with – and why they should want to connect with you. In your summary, explain to referral sources how you can be of value to their clients and customers and how your relationship will help them. Also, if you are trying to attract publicity, show the media that you are an expert. Use any media mentions to your advantage in your summary sections as well as having a complete media kit on your profile using the Box.net, Slideshare and Google Presentations applications. To help you create the copy you need for your LinkedIn profile, check out my Instant LinkedIn Marketing Templates at http://www.InstantLinkedInMarketingTemplates.com
Stay on top of your referral sources’ and media professionals’ minds – Once you figure out who your best key influencers, referral sources and media types, start doing your research on LinkedIn and make connections. When you make a new connection, invite the referral source or media professional to your LinkedIn group where you provide tips, tools and articles. Every time you are published, featured or quoted in the media you should be announcing it to your connections and group members. This will show them that you are a valuable resource and keep you on top of their minds. So when a referral source has a client needing your expertise, they’ll think of you. And, when the media needs an expert to quote- they’ll come to you.
So create a strong LinkedIn profile using my Instant LinkedIn Marketing Templates, figure out who would be the best referral sources and media types and start making connections that can double your sales guaranteed.
About the Author: LinkedIn Expert Kristina Jaramillo creates online marketplace opportunities for B2C companies and marketing executives that want to get more publicity, build relationships with key influencers and double their website traffic and sales. Now, with her free special report, you can uncover easy ways to gain more connections fast by avoiding the top 14 mistakes. Get this information for free at: http://www.Free14LinkedInMistakes.com
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5 Strange and Profitable Businesses
Have you ever had an unusual thought and wondered if it could turn into a profitable business? Here are five of my favorite unusual businesses:
1. Game Truck
Game Truck – Scott Novis developed Game Truck, a portable gaming party, after he found he was disappointed in his four-year-old son’s birthday party at a pizza arcade in 2006. Scott noticed that children were playing boring, static games, and that most of the kids had better games and better graphics on their home game boxes than were being offered at the party.
Scott went home, and, in his garage, retrofitted a truck with gaming consoles, flat screen monitors, and cool decorations, creating the first Game Truck.
After successfully trying it out at a friend’s birthday party, Scott turned his idea into a thriving weekend business. His company has since grown to nearly $2 million in revenue. Game Truck has nearly 40 trucks in 20 locations across the country, and 12 individuals are employed in its home office. The company also offers franchise opportunities.
2. Zipz Shoes
Zipz Shoes – John Stefani was at a family reunion in 2004 when he and his father began talking about how many pairs of dirt-caked children’s shoes were in their presence. John’s father, Jerry, said it would be great if an interchangeable shoe existed – one where you could mix and match the tops and bottoms, and throw the dirty part in the wash.
The idea stuck. After the reunion was over, John and his siblings went home dreaming about mix-and-match footwear. They sketched several prototypes of shoes held together with everything from Velcro to pins until, finally, Jerry designed a shoe held together by a zipper.
Zipz Shoes’ first year of sales was in 2010, and the company grossed $1 million in that year.
Zipz Shoes retail for $45 a pair and are available online and through boutique retailers. They are distributed in 40 countries, drawing particular interest from customers in Europe, Japan, and the Middle East.
3. The Something Store
The Something Store – In the summer of 2007, Sami Bayrakci was surfing the Internet in search of a birthday present for his friend. After an hour of fruitless browsing, Sami decided it would be so much easier if someone else would just make the decision for him. And so the idea of The Something Store was born.
When Sami first shared his idea with friends, they thought it would never work. At SomethingStore.com, customers pay a flat price for an unknown item. Who would pay for something when they don’t know what they’re getting?
But Sami gave it a try. With a small start-up investment of just $3,000 for supplies, he designed his own website and began selling small, lightweight items in order to keep shipping costs down.
Within his first few months of business, Sami had sold several thousand “somethings.”
4. Beaten Path Trails
Beaten Path Trails – If you don’t have access to nature, it’s not easy to appreciate it. Hikers and backpackers use trails to gain access to nature, but construction of these trails is not easy. Laws prohibit the construction of trails with the use of vehicles and machinery, and that presents a difficult situation for many contractors.
But Tyler Johnson has created a different kind of contracting business which has achieved plenty of success building and maintaining trails.
On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors started less than a year ago, and has already acquired around $ 3.3 million worth of contracts. On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors offers $17 per hour to off-season ski resort employees and to college students on summer break for work done creating and maintaining trails.
On the Beaten Path Trail Contractors currently has 63 workers in four states, and there doesn’t appear to be any worry of government cutbacks. Tyler says support from government officials for both access to nature and job creation will ensure that the contracts keep coming.
5. City Slips
City Slips – Susie Levitt and Katie Shea, both finance students at New York University, noticed that many women walked home barefoot at the end of the day because of their uncomfortable heels. So the young women decided to start a company which offered easily portable flat shoes.
They worked with contract designers and manufacturers in the United States and China, creating a pair of flats which folds up to fit into a pocket-sized zip pouch. When women put the flats on, the pouch becomes a tote bag in which they can carry the high heels they had been wearing.
CitySlips began selling in 2009, and they’re now sold by 500 retailers, including Neiman Marcus, Dillard’s, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Katie says CitySlips have broad appeal. “A 16-year-old leaving her senior prom will grab a pair of CitySlips and put them in her clutch bag, and then there’s my grandmother who will wear them leaving church,” she says.
Launched using $15,000 from personal savings and a $100,000 private loan, CitySlips sells shoes which retail for $10 to $58, depending on the style and material.
About the Author: This is a Guest Post by Vit Kashis from BizStriptease.com. He is also involved with ICLocator.com, Global Marketplace for Hard to Find Electronic Parts.
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7 Tools that Can Take a Small Business to the Next Level
Competing with the selection and price offered through big box retailers and national service providers can be tough. But small business owners are quickly discovering that the way to win friends doesn’t necessarily always have to do with price alone. In fact, simply by enhancing your customer service, you can compete with and even surpass your larger competitors.
Sure, you can spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars each year on a variety of pricey customer service initiatives. But there are also a number of cost-effective and highly productive services offered through the web, often requiring no software installation and an extremely short learning curve.
Edge Out the Competition with Smart Tools
Whether you’re trying to enhance your level of customer engagement or simply trying to cut costs, the following six tools provide a simple and affordable way to minimize your effort while maximizing your return. And a few of them can even be used for free!
1. Snap Engage
SnapEngage – Ever wish there was a way to reach out and grab those who visit your site? With SnapEngage, you can integrate live chat with web visitors via popup window, allowing them to connect directly to you or a representative through Google Talk or Skype. For a set monthly fee, you also receive detailed information on your visitors including SEO keywords, source, history, physical location and technical environment. Plus, you aren’t required to learn or install any new software.
2. Hello Bar
Hello Bar – Grab the attention of your website’s visitors as effectively as the banner headline on a daily newspaper with Hello Bar. Providing an extensive variety of colors, fonts and even textures, you can create a personalized call to action that appears on the top of any designated web page, directing your visitors to the most important information or prompting them to take the next step toward purchase. With free signup, you’re also allowed to perform A/B testing on multiple versions and receive an analysis of your click-through rate to choose the best one.
3. Buffer
Buffer – Bearing the tagline, “Be awesome on social media,” Buffer is pretty hard to resist. But that’s exactly what it provides: an awesome way to continuously connect with your social network without the hassle of having to retweet everything you see. The Buffer service keeps tabs on what you’re viewing, whether it’s on your PC, laptop or mobile device, and shares that content with your followers on a predetermined schedule. Plans are based on the number of posts sent out on a monthly basis and can even be had for free if you can manage to keep the number of posts to 10 or less.
4. Free Logo Services
Free Logo Services is one website that allows business owners to be their own graphic designer with extremely simple online software that is as easy to. All you have to do is enter your logo text, choose a professionally designed logo in the color scheme of your choice, and customize it further with a library of font styles and different positioning possibilities, and you just created your own professional looking logo design. You could literally save thousands by just clicking your mouse.
5. Grasshopper
Grasshopper – Ideal for businesses that operate in the cloud or have a number of employees always on the go, Grasshopper is a virtual phone system that allows you to select a phone number, record a greeting, add associates and then receive calls, voicemail and even faxes anywhere in the world. Plus, for a set monthly fee, they also provide a transcription of each voicemail delivered in your email – a tool that is quickly rising to the top of efficiency tools for those with a heavy call volume.
6. HelloFax
HelloFax – Another solution for eliminating unnecessary machinery (and its associated expense), HelloFax allows you to send and receive faxes, documents and forms digitally, even providing instructions to the recipient on items that require approval and signature. With a variety of plans available, based on pages faxed per month, HelloFax also acts as a storage center, keeping and tracking all documents sent through the service.
7. Dropbox
Dropbox – A quick and affordable solution for those who need to work from multiple locations, Dropbox provides a simple means of backing up important documents and files, storing them safely and securely in the cloud. Providing free accounts that contain up to 2 GB of storage (with paid accounts available for those needing a higher level of storage capacity), the service does require software installation on every computer that needs access to the service. But the benefit is that any computer registered to your account has access to your Dropbox – even mobile devices – enabling you or your team to collaborate from any location that has Internet access.
About the Author: Dylan Mazeika is an online writer with a background in marketing and small business. He enjoys writing articles and guest posts on the latest business and design trends, and helping business owners with their logo design
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Photo Credit: zzpza
3 Traits of a Successful Salesmen
Selling is without a doubt one of the most important aspects of running a business. You can have your books in perfect order, happy current clients around you and impressive quality of your work but if you do not keep bringing new business in, your company will ultimately fail, fact.
Most small business owners are not naturally born to sell. This is an another business fact. Their reasons for running a business are usually much different from the ones that drive an average sales person. A freelancer usually does what she do simply because it is her passion. The very same applies to many owners of small companies. They simply work on their passion, profit often comes next.
3 Traits of a Successful Salesmen
However, if you want to be good at selling and growing your business, you need to learn to act like a salesmen. You need to put your company and its income first and yourself second. And, you need to learn the three traits of a successful salesmen.
1. The ability to listen.
One of the common mistakes small business owners make during sales calls is talking all the time. A good salesmen however rarely speak. Instead they ask questions and listen to the prospects answers. In most of the time, their role is to spark new monologue from the prospect.
Why? Because that’s the best way to find out all the info you need to progress the sale further. No prospect will reveal why they want to change their current supplier, or what is their budget on their own accord. However, if you let them talk, they will eventually surrender that information.
2. Asking the right questions.
If you want your prospects to talk and tell you everything you want to know, you need to learn to ask the right questions.
Questions are critical to engage your prospect. And, they are used not only to extract information but also to build your image in their eyes. If you ask smart questions, they will think you are smart. And let me tell you this, people buy only from smart sales people. Simply.
3. The ability to build rapport with a prospect.
Rapport is a key aspect of your sales meetings. If you do not manage to build it, your sale will most likely not happen. Only if there is something you share, and you manage to point that out to your prospect, the sale will be much easier to make.
How do you build rapport with a prospect? Firstly research the person you are meeting. Do you have anything in common? Did you go to the same school, or live in the same region of the town, play the same sport? This could be anything, you may even simply belong to the same business organization, that is enough.
Once you have your research, use it during your sales call. Ideally, you should try to build rapport as early in your sales call as possible. Ask your prospect about something you have in common, or inform them that you have been in the same school or whatever else it was that you have found. This will help breaking the ice and progress the meeting further on a more relaxed note.
Making sales is a difficult task, especially for someone who is not a naturally born salesmen. The good news though is that anyone can learn how to be successful at selling and I hope this article has provided you with a good starting point to achieve this.
About the Author: Derek Jones is a business writer and sales expert. He shares the wealth of his knowledge through his blog Just Plain Business as well as Business How To which he is a regular contributor to.
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How Cloud Technology Can Help Small Businesses
Big or small, businesses do recognize the importance of an information technology department. With a lot of transactions and processes done through computers and the internet, ITDs serve as the nerves that allow the whole body to function properly and efficiently for flawless business operations.
Not only that, IT is also essential in a company’s relationships to their clients. In fact, in a Forrester survey of 2,961 business users from Q4 2010, eighty-four percent (84%) admitted that technology is critical to “serve and support” their customers.
With their huge budget that can afford technologies and manpower, big companies have the luxury to have their own IT department that they can easily access and manage. However, smaller companies with limited size and budget usually find themselves at the losing end, lacking the resources to purchase software and hire a bunch of IT professionals.
But that was before they discovered The Cloud.
The Cloud is actually a dedicated server that remotely hosts data, information or certain technological functions for client companies. It allows you to outsource storage, software, infrastructure or platforms to specialized hosting services on the web for free or for a lower cost.
Several companies have already discovered the amazing benefits that the Cloud technology provides. Here are top three reasons why you should make the jump from the I.T. department into the Cloud.
1. The Cloud is all about simplicity
The premise of the Cloud is easy to understand: remote and efficient work. There’s no need for long memos or talking to a chain of command to get something installed and done. You just contact your service provider when needed; and with a good hosting company, your request is as good as done. You’re the client and the Cloud is serving you—you get what you need for a reasonable but relatively lower price.
In essence, the technology is also simple: the Cloud is basically an array of devices connected to big, efficient and fast computers through the web. This means that you can count on it for longer and better performance compared with your usual I.T. Plus, there are variations of the Cloud that have Windows and Linux dedicated servers, making it easier to plug your business into it no matter what kind of operating system you use.
2. The Cloud is accessible anytime and anywhere
Using the Cloud technology is like storing your files in the clouds in the sky and being able to access it anytime—wherever you go. You give your data to the hosting company for safekeeping in confidentiality, and you and your employees can access it from anywhere through any internet-enabled gadget as long as there is an internet connection.
3. The Cloud allows you to save big without sacrificing quality
Essentially, making use of the Cloud means paying other people to do twice the work a normal in-house I.T. department would at a fraction of the cost. It saves time and effort while ensuring better quality services since Cloud hosting companies have people and technology specializing in the function you are trying to outsource.
You would no longer have to invest time, money and effort on (1) hiring and managing manpower, (2) setting up systems for file privacy, (3) additional computer units and other equipment, and (4) installing, maintaining and regularly updating software and hardware, among many other IT functions. You are also spared from the hassle of system failure when trying to access your files remotely.
4. The Cloud guarantees privacy and security
Despite being on a shared supercomputer, the Cloud can promise security and privacy through virtual private servers or VPS hosting, which places clients into various servers that can work independently. This means that although you may be sharing a supercomputer with other clients, your data and files are practically separate from those of others as if it were on a separate physical computer.
All in all, the Cloud takes away a huge chunk of your business worries, allowing you to focus more on serving your clients and improving your products and services. By giving you the services of an I.T. department without extra cost, you can abandon the costly I.T. ship without hesitation and move on to a more smooth-sailing craft that lets you convert the amount you saved into more profit.
About the Author: Nikko Marasigan is a Marketing Consultant for ServerPoint a web hosting company. They provide VPS hosting and Cloud Hosting for blogs, forums and businesses since 1998
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How to Survey on LinkedIn
LinkedIn has surpassed simply being a site for aspirant unemployed guys to linger waiting for the next big break. It’s a way for business experts to hang out and interact with like-minded others and find the folks out there who show expertise in their niches on a daily basis.
Peoples’ viewpoints make for good content. If you read my eBook LinkedIn Profile Optimization for Maximum Exposure, you know that in the chapter on Applications I touch on polls on LinkedIn but didn’t have a lot of detail to accompany it. Here is a bit more on LinkedIn polls and how to utilize them.
My First Poll Experience
To more completely research market demand for a product I was developing on Executive Video Interviews for business leaders, I posted the following poll on LinkedIn.
So what did I uncover? Well, obviously I learned more people like using web video for product demonstrations, something not all together surprising given the ease of filming something in action and throwing it on YouTube.
But did I truly find that out?
With only 16 responses, I’m no statistician but I’d say this lacks statistical significance. I had wanted a lot more to answer the poll. I mean, I placed a link to it on about twenty LinkedIn groups. There really should have been thousands of replies right?
Learning My Lessons
Here are some things I learned about using this poll to engage the business community:
- There is a ton of noise online at LinkedIn. Readers won’t see or even care about your poll saving you MARKET THE EVERLIVING HELL OUT OF IT. That means posting in the Groups, tweeting several times, and using Facebook and other social media to the max leverage you can.
- This is an inkling, but I believe that my Executive Video Interview responses don’t tell me that much about acceptance to my product. Why? Because people haven’t seen it it yet! Two of the three responders to this survey on that item were customers of mine who had them done. Since there is no one else I know who does this like I do, that insider information slants the polls results. Which way I am still debating. Since I took this poll down, market experience is advising me that my sample portfolio of client interviews is mustering up a lot more interest than a survey with a product not universally known. LESSON: All obliged choice replies need to be commonly known. For product acceptance (like this one), survey based upon product outcomes, not the brand of the item.
- Often the most interesting facts are the feedback left by people who take the poll, describing what they have done for their firm (in this case). Don’t overlook that gold mine.
- Marketing the survey in interest groups only slightly related generates no results. Because I use web video to assist small businesses, I got more LinkedIn Group outcomes from a group on Web Video with only a couple hundred, dedicated specialists. The complication here was that some of these folks, being enthusiasts in web video, may have been informing me what they focused on, not what small business wanted.
Connecting with LinkedIn Polls
LinkedIn creates a fantastic survey and it’s easy to put together and put on their site, but it has 2 issues:
- LinkedIn only keeps each poll around for a month or so. You have to be capable to promote it and market it fast because you don’t have forever to accumulate your results. Fact is, in most surveying circumstances, they’ve run their course in just a two or three days, so LinkedIn has a point.
- You can’t post the poll on your LinkedIn profile; you can only put it in your status update and submit to Groups. If you’re optimizing your profile you know you are posting updates every few days at the very least. Unless you want to become an aggravating spammer on LinkedIn Groups, you won’t advertise your survey there more than once or twice every few weeks. This implies that on LinkedIn itself, your poll has little staying power other than in a generic Polls page, and typically speaking, people aren’t surfing that searching for something to do.
Not a big deal. Here are a couple ways to influence surveys in LinkedIn:
- Embed on your Site
- Tweet out to your favorite hash-tag trends and followers
- Facebook post it for your fans
What about types of questions for surveys? Well, if the poll is something you are just looking to get replies to, appeal to low common denominators like pop culture or politics. Everyone has an opinion on them. If, on the other hand, you are hoping to find specific niche advice about your business or market, as I was in this case, do anything you can to reach the audience to the niche so that they are interested in it enough to want to find out the outcomes themselves, or just deal with a small response rate indicative of your target reader size.
One way to do this targeting is to upload your survey in a blog post or article and send to search engines. Through SEO your article will be checked out by those who discovered it who were trying to find it, and odds are better they vote on the poll. In the next few days I’ll be doing this with one more LinkedIn poll on marketing techniques for business. Get statistically substantial results, particularly if they are unpredicted, and you have developed a news item that you can now leverage with, you guessed it, another blog post, a press release to news outlets, or placed as an item of interest on your website.
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 builds 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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5 Ways to Make Pinterest the Newest Asset To Your Company
Link Pinterest to the Facebook account of the person with the most friends in your office
Does this sound petty? It’s not. People who are your ‘friends’ on Facebook (usually) have more of a connection to you than your company. They will check you out because they are interested in expanding their own Pinterest network. You are easier to find than your company (that they may or may not be able to recall). Once friends find your artful curation, it will not matter whose name it represents.
Build your Boards before you go on a follower rampage
Whether you are an individual or a company, people will not be interested in your account until you have something to show them. Even if you acquire a few loyal followers (your CTO and best friend from college) with no content, to gain an engaging set of followers you must produce something of value. Invest in finding images that mean something you. Humor is always a plus, but do not underestimate the power of a beautifully composed photograph.
Tell a story
Let the Pinterest audience know who you are before you throw at them what you sell or provide. The point of Pinterest is not to gather an immediate, lucrative following that will tote your brand like Abercrombie & Fitch in the late 1990’s. You want the people, yes people, on Pinterest to get to know you (as a representative of your company). Images in general have the power to evoke powerful emotions; just look at all of the Boards titled ‘Motivation,’ ‘Imagination,’ ‘Love.’ Using images to evoke true feeling is not exploitation. It is an opportunity to connect with individuals who are looking to be touched in a way they are not yet aware. Surprise users with how thoughtful, tasteful, creative, intelligent and witty you are.
Don’t over do it
There is nothing more agitating on a social media site than someone who thinks they are a world-class hoot. If you set out to impress, you are sure to disappoint – both your viewers and yourself. Be genuine in your approach, with image selection/captions, and stick to it. People will see through your obvious innuendos and over-eager “wit.” Take the advice of your elementary school teachers and just be yourself.
Interact with people who share similar interests
Does this sound obvious? It should. However, many companies are eager to follow anyone and everyone in the hopes they will return the favor. Besides flooding your homepage with images you are unimpressed with, it will take longer to sort through to find those with whom you actually share a visual bond. Connecting with people whose pins relate to yours inspires an actual “Pinterest” relationship of mutual (and frequent) repinning. It also leads you to other pins, and people, who are more likely to be interested in the images you have chosen to represent your company ethos.
About the Author: Erin Nelson is the Communication & Marketing Manager for the Berlin-based startup, exploreB2B. The new social, business platform, exploreB2B, allows individuals the opportunity to connect and collaborate with other professionals through reading and writing self-published articles.
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Market Research: What, Why, and How
Sun Tzu, a Chinese general writing in 500 BC and still studied today at West Point said, “If you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be in danger in every single battle.”
Prepare for Battle
Business today is a battleground. Business owners are generals with limited resources whose aim is to stay in business, make a profit and grow to a size that stays manageable.
Market Research is preparation for battle. Just as a wise general will scout the area ahead so the business owner must consider every move carefully before he commits his forces.
Check out the Competition
No-one enters an area of enterprise without challenge. There’s always someone there already serving the market. So the first question any new business or start-up should ask is “What are the competition up to?”
Talk to their customers. Are they happy with the service they’re getting? Are they being dealt with fairly? Does the product they’re currently buying deliver on all fronts? Could it be made smaller, better or cheaper?
Take nothing for granted. Sometimes dumb questions provide world changing answers.
Look carefully at competitors products. Look too at the mindset of your target market.
Two products can share an identical specification but be miles apart in terms of perception. When people buy something they’re buying the product, plus whatever else it is they “know” about the company.
A Hunt for Truth
The point about research is to discover the truth rather than confirm a prejudice. The trick if you’re doing your own market research is to ask the right questions and then listen to what people say.
Don’t assume that trends in the past will continue into the future. It didn’t take long for the pager market to collapse once mobile telephony took off. Market research cannot predict the future or suggest when a major new trend is about to break.
One cost effective way of taking a snapshot of opinion is to use an online questionnaire. These surveys are fast and flexible, providing answers in a few days.
Eliminate Surprises
Market Research helps us avoid surprises. A few years ago the Coca Cola company were using the slogan “Coke Adds Life.” No-one thought to question how this translated into Chinese and so Chinese consumers were bemused to learn that “Coke Brings Back the Spirits of Your Dead Ancestors.”
Remember too that people are generally helpful and encouraging. If you’re researching an idea among friends and family be aware that they’ll want to see you succeed and may therefore give you the answers which they think you want to hear rather than what they actually think.
Avoiding bias is one of the cornerstones of good market research. Avoiding assumption is another.
Sun Tzu, the Chinese General mentioned in the first paragraph also said, “The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand.”
Market Research is an essential part of any successful enterprise. As the man says, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
James writes for AYTM, who provides market research for small businesses and startups. AYTM allows you to create market research surveys specific for your business and get quick responses from their market research panels.
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Website Localization: Going International Online
As markets in Asia and Latin America quickly grow to rival those in North America and Europe, many companies are expanding in the world’s developing economies. Multinational companies are able to firstly grow and then diversify their revenue by trading internationally. Furthermore, many are able to leverage their resources and capabilities to innovate and customise products specific to certain markets. One of the main reasons for success in overseas markets is effective localisation of products and services.
Companies launching in foreign markets often find it difficult to compete with local companies who obviously have the advantage of knowing and understanding their local market. Even without competition, language and culture present many challenges for outside entrants to overcome. Companies large and small have failed to gain a foothold in a foreign market because of a lack of cultural awareness and understanding. In order to effectively market products and services to a new country or region, companies need to focus upon localisation for successful results.
Web Opportunities
The Internet presents a great opportunity for many companies to enter a foreign market and test their suitability. For web-based companies especially, the Internet is a cost-effective channel to tap into a new market. Language and culture still present a challenge, but they can be easily addressed by companies through an effective and sustained localization strategy.
The language long tail on the Internet has been lengthening with most growth occurring in languages spoken in the emerging world. Languages like Arabic and Chinese have grown 2500% and 1500% respectively by the number of users over the last 5 years. Research shows that web users are up to 4 times more likely1 to purchase from websites in their native language. As a result, the internet has been bestowed with regional characteristics and content is being made available in different languages to reach out to web users internationally. Multinational online companies now support an average of 23 languages on their websites2; this increase has sped up more so in the latter part of the last decade. This is due to the realization by many global companies that a multilingual communication strategy is key to continued success in the era of globalisation.
Localising for the Web
Primarily, a website is more suited for a market if it uses country code top-level domain (for e.g. .fr, .co.uk, .de, .cn). It is also suitable to host a country specific website on servers located within a country. This would improve page loading times and search engine rankings. With the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), which are top level domain in foreign languages, the language factor has become more profound and a critical element of connecting with foreign web users.
Localisation requires complete adaptation of a product or service and it covers the adaptation of company logo, slogan etc. for a market. It is recommended that professional help in the form of translation agency or localisation experts are used to assist in this process. A mishap can occur with any company and as was the case with Schweppes whose campaign for ‘Schweppes Tonic Water’ unknowingly translated into ‘Schweppes Toilet Water’ in Italy. Thus, it becomes imperative that professionals are involved in the localisation process.
Translation of content is central to expansion into a foreign market. For search marketing purposes, keyword research should be the primary task for companies. Once a set of keywords that are applicable for a company, its products or services, is developed, translation can follow in order to make it relevant for search engines. The translation that is conducted has to be country specific and should resonate with the market in order to be effective.
The process of providing a localised online experience continues in all forms and channels of engagement. Translation would be required for advertising campaigns, help content, terms and conditions, as well as customer service contact. The costs of online expansion are very affordable, and good localisation pays off in a matter of time, research has shown that every $1 invested in localisation yields $25 in revenues for software companies. To successfully connect with foreign web users, localisation has to be adapted at all levels.
- European Online Language Preferences Revealed in Flash Eurobarometer Report, Common Sense Advisory.
- The Top 25 Global Websites of 2011, Global by Design.
- Localization Industry Standards Association 2007 report.
About the Author: Talha Fazlani is a technical marketing professional who works for Language Connect, a language, localization and multilingual digital marketing company. Language Connect is a fast growing translation services company , and is renowned for its quick turnaround times and efficient working methods.
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