For any business owner looking to attract and convert more visitors, one sure way is to utilize and implement video testimonials from satisfied customers.  When used properly, these videos will make your website more visually appealing (and sticky!).

Getting more exposure

In today’s social media society, visibility is vital to being a leader among your competitors. A few short video testimonials can draw quite a bit of attention, which often times will encourage your visitors to share your content with others on sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc.  

Not only will this help increase exposure across social media networks, it will also help your search engine rankings.  This makes it easier for prospects to find your business, access your website and purchase your products and services. 

Touching individuals in different ways

A video testimonial can easily answer a customer’s questions, almost acting as a visual form of a FAQ.  This can provide both visual and audio reassurance of a company, its products, and its staff. 

For some customers, a video testimonial adds credibility to the website and adds a personal, one-on-one experience.

Linking your videos to your social media properties

Websites that also leverage social media pages for their business can reap the benefits of these videos testimonials by showcasing clips on YouTube and Facebook for a double-dose of visibility. This can be another strategy used to gain more followers and momentum online.

Displaying important information above-the-fold

Some visitors prefer quick information when they visit a web page.  Most people don’t appreciate pages of content and dozens of confusing links to navigate through. 

Video testimonials, if used properly, can summarize common questions about:

• Pricing & billing;
• Discounts;
• Warranties;
• The company’s return policy.  

Boosting credibility and putting your visitors at ease

Not only will these video testimonials serve as a visual source of information, but they also have the ability to put potential customers at ease.  If a visitor has never used your company’s product or services before, this can boost your credibility and make them feel comfortable buying into your offering or simply reaching out directly for more information. 

About the Author:   Sean Rosensteel is the Head of Business Development at Bravo Video, a web-based platform that enables businesses to easily capture video from customers, users and fans – right over the web.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

Locally advertising your business, such as through billboards and newspapers, is a great way to bring people to your business. However, advertising in the wrong areas only wastes money, and it may even risk your reputation if your advertising space is very bad for your business. Go through this checklist to make sure you are advertising in the right area.

Demographic Information

Most businesses sell products or services to a certain demographic. If you are an office supply store, for example, then your main demographic will be small business owners. However, this type of store can also be popular with regular homeowners, teachers and anyone else that needs office supplies. With this wide a demographic, it can be easy to advertise in most places.

However, some businesses have very specific demographics. For example, if you run a gym that specifically trains people in the onset of becoming seniors in the 65 to 70 range, then you should research the area very thoroughly. If you advertise in an area with few seniors, then you won’t make a dent in the market at all.

Research the area and make sure your main demographic is available. If it isn’t, then you probably shouldn’t advertise there.

Traffic

This is especially important for billboards, but it is important for any advertising method. You need to make sure that there is traffic that will see your advertising. Otherwise, no one will see your business information.

For example, if you take out a billboard, make sure it is near a busy road or one that gets a good amount of drivers. If you make an ad in the newspaper, make sure there are enough readers to justify the advertising cost. You want to make sure that people see your ad in order to get people into your business.

This is often very easy to find out. If you are make a location-based ad, like a billboard, then look at the road where the billboard is located. If you are make a print-based ad, then make sure it is attached to a magazine or newspaper with enough readers, or that your flyers are posted in good areas.

Competition

How much competition is there in the nearby area? There will most likely be a few businesses like your own in the local area, and there is nothing wrong with some healthy competition. But, competition can be a little too fierce if the area is full of the same businesses.

For example, if you are advertising a consulting firm, check to see how many similar firms are in the same area. If there are hundreds of firms actively advertising in the area, then you may want to avoid the location. There is probably a huge need for your business, but if there are already established businesses serving all the customers, then you may have a hard time making money.

However, you can counter this by doing something different. If you specialize in something with consulting, or if you can offer a better deal than anyone else in town, then you might be able to steal away some of the market. Make sure you have something that no one else can do, and you may be able to beat the competition.

Assess Risks

Before advertising in an area, you should consider the risks to your business. For example, if you are a software company, you should consider the chance that your software may become obsolete before your advertising is put up. If this happens, then you will waste money on the advertising.

Not only that, but you should assess any other risk factors associated with your business. While there is always the chance that unexpected risks will occur, you should do your best to ensure that your advertising works in the intended area.

Conclusion

Finding the best area for your advertising can be difficult. There are many factors to research, and you can end up wasting a lot of money without getting any revenue in return. However, if you look up these different factors, then you should be able to find the best area for your advertising. Never blindly advertise in an area because you like it, as this often leads to wasted money. Check these factors, and you should succeed.

About the Author:  Tom Demers is an avid Tech blogger; writing about topics including windows domain controller.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

Running a small business can sometimes leave little room for marketing, both in terms of budgeting and marketing efforts. One great source and channel to focus on in this case would be through Facebook. Now, how can you market your business in an effective way? One effective way is to use a Facebook campaign manager tool to take care of the job for you.

One such tool is Qwaya. This is one of only 30 companies around the world that has access to Facebook API, which makes it a reliable product which keeps your ads always updated to the latest standards. Let’s have a look how you can use a tool like this for your marketing.

First off, you can use Qwaya in order to create bulk ads. This features mean that if you provide a couple of different images, titles and bodies for ads, the system can create X amount of combinations that you can try out to see which one fits you the best. Many of these campaign tools comes in different packages and in Qwaya’s case you can with the premium account run up to 1000 ads per week.

One really important feature when it comes to Facebook ads, and any ads for that sake, is to conduct A-B testing. This means that you need to try out and tweak in order to find the best fitting ad for your products and ads. Qwaya offers an interface through which you can follow up on these ads and see how each of these campaigns worked out.

How do you know who should see your ad one their page? Well here is why A-B testing is so important! One suggestion is to try running the ads with a broad demographic group in mind. Based on this you can then see how is actually clicking in to your business fan page. More than often you’ll be surprised that presumptions don’t meet the real target group. This is what makes Facebook such an effective channel, as you have a large community full of potential customers to target directly.

Summary

Many companies have a strict view on how to market themselves through Facebook and often miss out to reach the right target audience. By using a campaign manager tool like Qwaya you are opened up to an cost efficient way of promoting your company and products. By A-B testing different ads and tightly following up on these, you’ll soon find your real audience and can significantly increase your Facebook presence and make a difference in sales. For more specific information about the features in Qwaya, please look at www.qwaya.com

About the Author:  Craig Robinson works with content for Qwaya and is also a Facebook marketing strategist. Besides writing for this Facebook ads tool, he also tries to be as active as possible in forums about social media and social context.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

Photo Credit: linh.ngân

Thanks to the technology boom, the marketing landscape has evolved dramatically over the last 20 years. The Internet and social media paved the way for new “pull” marketing techniques, and there has been a shift in some of the more traditional “push” marketing channels, including radio.

Contrary to what you might believe, radio advertising isn’t going away any time soon. In fact, marketing funds spent on radio commercials increased by almost 11% between 2010 and 2011, according to Nielsen. And no wonder—radio reaches an estimated 57 million Americans each week.

Radio Commercial Advantages

Radio advertising has distinct advantages over other media. Audio advertising has been shown to elicit a stronger emotional response than visual, if done correctly. In addition, radio commercials are usually much less expensive to produce than television commercials, and the production time is much shorter, making them an economical choice.

Many radio stations now stream their broadcasts live on the Internet. This means radio commercials have the potential to reach a broader audience for the same cost.

Ride the Radio Waves to Success

Successful radio marketing campaigns take into account a number of key factors in order to maximize their effectiveness. If you’re new to radio advertising, you may want to try to incorporate some of the following into your radio marketing plan:

Know Your Target Your Audience

Radio has a natural system for reaching different audiences due to its ability to target a wide range of demographic segments. It’s up to you to determine which type of listener you’re trying to reach. Knowing your listener will help you find the best station to advertise on, and it will help direct the message within radio commercial itself.

Research How Radio Works

If you’ve never ventured into radio advertising before, you may want to do some research on the metrics used to compare various opportunities. The value (or effectiveness) of radio advertising is usually measured in terms of “cost-per-point,” i.e., what it will cost to reach 1% of your target audience. However, you’ll also want to weigh frequency (number of times your audience will hear your commercial) and reach (number of people who will hear your commercial), along with the cost of actually producing and running the commercial.

Make a Great First Impression

Radio Ad Lab research by Gallup & Robinson determined that successful radio commercials have strong beginnings that capture the audience’s attention in the first few seconds. Grabbing a listener with an emotional “hook” makes the listener much more likely to remain engaged throughout the entire commercial. All the more reason to incorporate a killer first line when writing and producing your commercial.

Say Your Name, Say Your Name

Research shows a strong correlation between the number of times a brand is mentioned and how well a listener is able to recall the brand name after the ad is over. Consider mentioning your brand or product name regularly throughout the script, and be sure to offer your audience a “call to action” within the commercial to drive them to buy.

Use a Great Voice

Your company’s CEO might have a great personality, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he or she should be the radio spokesperson for your brand. Because a commercial’s effectiveness relies on the listener’s emotional response, you may want consider investing in voice talent. Voice actors are specially trained to be effective and clear communicators who have the ability to emotionally engage their audience.

As you can see, radio commercials can be a worthwhile marketing investment. Just remember, the most effective commercials are well-thought-out, strategically placed, and emotionally engaging. If you aren’t already, consider making radio commercials part of your marketing mix.

About the Author: Sarah Stockton is an Outreach Coordinator for Voices.com, a site connects businesses with professional voice talents. She enjoys helping potential voice talent find their start in the voice industry.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

With so many companies around the globe using social media marketing to some extent, what can your business do to ensure that it stands out from all the others? Which social media platform will help you maximize the impact of your Internet marketing and increase social engagement among your customers?

One key to answering these questions is to define and then stay clearly focused on your company’s story. What is the essence of your organization and how did you get where you are?  Don’t shy away from the often-fascinating details of what your company believes in, including the highs and lows and everything in between.

Once your story is clearly defined, you can mine this rich content to help draw in new customers and keep your old ones.  Here are some companies that have found success with this strategy.

Einstein Bros. Bagels

A few years ago, Einstein Bros. Bagels noticed that the number of new visitors to its Facebook page had reached a plateau. In response, the company shifted its social media marketing approach and tried direct marketing through the Facebook page.

How did Einstein Bros. do it? It gave all its existing Facebook fans an exclusive offer for a free bagel then offered the same deal to new fans. The promotion was short but powerful. During the first week of the campaign, Einstein Bros. increased its number of fans by 1,000%, eventually becoming the 54^th most-popular business on Facebook.

Cheerios

In late 2009, Cheerios cereal began a Facebook campaign targeting parents of young children as a way of gaining fans. The company offered a free children’s book to charity for each new Cheerios Facebook member. Within a day, visitors to Cheerios’ Facebook page increased 1,500%.

During the campaign, more than 120,000 books were given away, helping paint an image of Cheerios as a responsible and caring business.

Levi’s Outdoor Clothing Line

When Levi’s launched its “Ready to Work” campaign featuring a new line of outdoor clothing in 2010, the company zeroed in on the residents of Braddock, Pennsylvania. The rugged steel town was seeking to revive itself by breathing new life into its mills.

Levi’s featured Braddock residents in Facebook ads targeted at 18 to 34 year olds; it also offered a 40% discount off products through Facebook. Over the course of the campaign, Levi’s saw a 35% increase in its Facebook fans.

Each of these three companies researched its audience and was able to shape a storyline to garner the best possible social engagement from its customer base. Conversations evolved and ideas were shared through marketing aimed at real people and their real lives. The companies knew what kind of offers and discounts would generate the most buzz and bring in the most new fans.

Looking for a key to social media success? Know your company’s story and share it strategically through your social media platform.

About the Author: This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco.  USF offers online marketing courses including SEO training, search engine marketing, social media training, mobile marketing and more.  To learn more about University of San Francisco’s certificate programs visit www.usanfranonline.com.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

You can relax now. All this buzz about blogging. Blah-blah-blah-blah- blogging. Will she never shut up about the many great virtues of  blogging?  Probably not, but today I will give you all a break and tell you what you’ve been longing to hear for a while now: email marketing is still alive. Yes, it’s true, alive and well, and yes, converting leads to customers. I’ve felt this for a long while now, but with all the buzz about social media being the place to be, no wait, blogging, no wait, video marketing, no, wait once more —you get the picture, we seem to have thrown poor worn down email marketing under the bus, along with the VHS tapes.  Its’ efficacy continues to be debated – I recently had the conversation with one of my Master Mind partners, so Kim this blog is for you! You can all take a deep sigh of relief now because if btobonline confirms what I’ve suspected, what with all of their crazy pie graphs and statistics, then we know it’s for real. I feel like I’m sounding facetious here, but honestly I’m not.

Not that email marketing isn’t without it’s pitfalls. But lets address them so that we can get past them: The Big 3 Pitfalls to a successful email campaign are:

Pitfall #1

Using a bad list and therefore preaching to the choir. I know I’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating here: If your current email list consists of your camp friends, your parents best friends, your orthodontist and your bank, you need to clean up your list. Not that Dr. Rubenstein won’t forward your email if you make it clear that he is to do so at the bottom, but lets be real here. Preaching to the choir is just that: a choir. What you need is a list of ‘Opt-in Permission Giving Interested in What You’ve Got to Say Because it Speaks to Them Personally’ potential clients, or at the very least folks who will gladly forward or “share” your email with potential clients, rather than your brother who is sick of these things already. Take him off your list please!  If I can, as much as it broke my heart, you can too. So to re-cap: make sure you have an easy to find opt-in box on your website so that folks can sign up for your emails.

Pitfall #2

Not being clear on what you’d like your readers to do, once they’re done reading your brilliant information. All too often we forget that very important call to action. Do you want them to pick up the phone and call you, or ‘reply back if interested’? To share this on the social networks you’ve strategically placed in your signature as a live link? (You did place a live link for them to be able to easily tweet/like/share, didn’t you?)

Pitfall #3

Not targeting your email to a target audience. You can’t be everything to everyone. In email marketing especially, it’s very important to pick your target audience and compile content that will address it as a whole. Irrelevant content will be deemed as irrelevant and you know what comes next…..Mr. Delete, that’s who. Your email must speak to who you are targeting, right up front, and address a need. If you have several targets, it’s very easy these days to create email distribution lists that allow you to customize your content for each list. Make sure you’re doing that. More about that below.

Those are the biggest pitfalls, and as you can see, all are easily overcome with a little strategy. The benefits of emailing  your blog, message, offer or newsletter so far outweigh the pitfalls it’s silly not to do it. Here are some of the biggest benefits. Let me know if you can come up with some more:

1. Most businesses and your clients, unless they are 13 years of age or under are on their email all the time. Don’t let your high schooler or college kid fool you- even though they’re tweeting and Facebook chatting and texting all night and all day, even they are also on their email. They have to be, because us old fogies, their superiors-teachers, coaches, parents, tutors, department heads, etc. are all emailing them…not tweeting them. Your biggest audience is opening up their inboxes an average of 16 times per day, as per Btobonline (see report above)
2. Email carries authority and an allure. As compared to the social sites, email still has a sense of urgency about it; we’re compelled to open it, right? Just as we’re compelled to look at road kill even though it’s disgusting.
3. Email is cheap, and often free. Most of the big email distribution companies such as Constant Contact and Mail Chimp are free up until a certain amount of contacts. Aweber is not, but they’re fairly cheap, and they have great customer care where you actually get a live person on the phone when you run into a snag, rather than a “forum” to join and wait 2 days for someone to respond…or not. If you’re just starting out or a template look is not important, most servers now let you compile and “distribute” your lists as an option right from your out box, and many allow you to schedule them ahead of time.
4. It’s not scary! We all email, we’re comfortable and for many of a “certain generation” it’s doable, and it sure beats tooting. I mean tweeting.
5. Emailing converts. Again, see btobonline

The bottom line is that as much as we’d like to believe that when we write our blog or post an amazing offer on our website, the Gates of Heaven will open up, the angels will sing, and the world will be a better place because of our fab new content. Truth is, until we’ve really marketed that content via many channels on a continuous and consistent schedule-to the social networks, social news sites, the search engines, the bookmarking sites, commented on others sites, linked to authority sites, etc., we need emailing as an avenue as well to spread our word. It remains an excellent and easy- probably the easiest- way to get your word out, and can be a very effective piece of your marketing plan.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engines are the source from where new sites can be found while almost 70-80 percent online purchasing is done on websites through search engines. Search engine browsing is one of the most widely used research method that leads to many advantages.

Business packages

Internet search engines offer various packages for business websites. There are many small business SEO packages that can be found. However, there are many things that you need to consider when it comes to seo packages. Like if you are a small business and you need to sell products on your website, you need to have a search engine package that is effective, low cost and user-friendly.

Keywords

Moreover, you need to have keywords that can help people find the words they need related to the things they want to purchase. Among other things that you need to manage is your site. You need to have answers for all the queries of the customers along with other things that are necessary for the small business SEO packages.

The dos and don’ts of using SEO packages

Small business SEO packages are never extravagant in offering services but they should at least satisfy the customers. You need to know your business needs and have the seo package that you think best suits your business. You also need to know what kind of SEO your business needs and then have the best package for it. Yes, there are different ways to optimize the search engine as well.

Determining whether you need SEO packages or not

You would want to know whether your website needs SEO package or not, and if it does then how do you want it to work. If you have a content rich website, you will be offered a different package. However, if you just want to increase the ratings of your website, the packages available will be entirely different.

SEO campaigns include keyword or competitor analysis and blogs that your website might need. You need to have the best package just to ensure that your website and your small business can have everything that is required for a successful business. There is online optimization that is also included in the SEO campaign.

How to avail these packages

There are different packages with different needs and different requirements. These business packages are made for businesses that are in competition. Furthermore, the directory and keywords are to be chosen in packages and the capacity of these keywords and directory is dependent upon the package validity and month. There are blogs and articles in the package that can be helpful for your business and the website that you have created. Any of these websites can tell you which package suits you the best.

These packages can be availed online or through help taken from people who know about packages. These packages can be costly if you want the ones that have everything. These packages carry a lot of things that are really useful in business organizations and can help you a lot.

About the Author: Brendan Egan is the CEO of Simple SEO Group. The company offers small business SEO packages which include web design and marketing strategies. Brendan can be contacted at www.SimpleSEOGroup.com

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

In a recession, it’s harder to come up with the money to spend on advertising, but this is exactly what you need to do. A business lives or dies by its sales. If you choke off your marketing department, your business will die. However, you might be in a tough spot right now. That’s fine. There’s no need to spend money like a Madison Avenue ad agency to get good results from your marketing efforts. Here are five ideas for you to revisit:

Business Cards – The Right Way

Most businesses use business cards the wrong way. They put their name, address, and phone number on the card. Wrong. A business card is a mini-marketing piece. It’s your opportunity to tell the world what it is that you do for a living. Don’t tell prospective customers what you are. Rather, tell them the benefits of doing business with you.

Since you don’t have much room on a business card, you have to keep your benefits short. Use bullet points, and consider printing the main benefits of working with you on the back of the card. For example, if you ran a restaurant, your business card benefit statements might look like this:

 -No canned foods

- No microwave

- Everything made from scratch

- Leave satisfied or your money back

Most restaurants aren’t bold enough to print something like that on their fliers or business cards. That’s good for you. It lets you take advantage of the skittishness and laziness of your competitors.

Email List

Get an autoresponder service. Invite people to join your mailing list. Email lists are cheaper to maintain that physical newsletters. You can email customers or prospective customers about special promotions and deals that you are offering. You can also help customers solve problems through your email follow up campaigns.

Don’t just pitch your services. Try to get inside the head of your prospective clients. What do they want? What are their biggest challenges and fears? If you can show them, not just tell them, that you have a solution for them, then you will win their business.

Networking

This strategy takes some real initiative, but pays off in the long-run. Call up local businesses and tell them you are starting a networking club. The purpose of the club is to gather together the best and brightest businesses in your area and work together to offer everyone’s clients more value. This works especially well if you can offer something of value to the other businesses. Many businesses do protect their customer lists, and won’t want to share them with you unless you can offer their customers something extremely valuable.

Postcards

It’s more expensive than an email list, but it’s also a way to build your email list. Post cards are cheaper than using traditional direct mail sales letters but still very effective. Like your business card, you have to keep it short on a post card. List your best benefits and a good reason to join your mailing list.

You can get the names and addresses of potential customers from a local list broker (i.e. look in your local yellow pages or do a search on Google). Then, write up your ad copy and mail our your piece.

Facebook/Twitter

Facebook and Twitter are all the rage right now. Unfortunately, most business owners don’t know how to use these sites effectively. Facebook and Twitter are used mostly for social purposes, not for marketing. It’s a great way to gain insight as to what your ideal customers are looking for.

You can interact with your most loyal fans and even ask them directly what they like or don’t like about your company. In some cases, you can sell to people via Facebook or Twitter, but usually those sales will be to loyal and existing customers. Still, it’s free to set up a Facebook and twitter account. You’re  limited only by your imagination.

About the Author: Guest post written by Liz Goldman and brought to you by Wonga payday loans experts.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

To be or not to be part of the online world? I believe in 2012 we’re well past this question. Almost any former offline-on-purpose SME has moved towards the internet at some point. We are aware of the massive benefits it brings even to hyper local small businesses.

One topic is still to debate (and you’re invited to state your point below the post): what elements do we really need in order to establish a successful online presence? Is the combination website+blog+social media necessary and sufficient?

Well, it’s simpler than that. Little goes a long way and this article will prove it’s neither difficult nor expensive to establish a competitive and robust online presence for your business even if you are not a web pro.

Why do small businesses need an online persona?

During my years of work in the small business field, I have met entrepreneurs who were internet savvy but still hesitated to bring their own companies visible online. There were two main arguments they stayed aside:

- the costs they thought to be involved

- fear of not being able to manage the online signals with tact (“if you can’t say something wise, it’s better not to speak at all”)

I admit to find the second assessment very common sensed and legitimate. Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, this is already an immense charge of signals. It’s best to find a certain degree of online involvement that you can handle with ease, otherwise you will be like the high street shop with no customers, well placed but poorly managed.

There are certain benefits for any brick and mortar business to go online:

1. It’s a sure way to build word-of-mouth reputation and trust, as part of your marketing strategy

2. Opens new sales opportunities and automatizes the process

3. Helps you grow the contacts portfolio and do business networking

4. Saves money on offline advertising.

Customers don’t use yellow pages or the local business directory anymore, they search the internet to find your business. Moreover, peer reviews are more and more a decisive factor when it comes to choosing where to buy from. Your company cannot miss this.

The online kit you really need

I argue that a website is not mandatory for a small business who wishes to go online. There are sure fire ways to get noticed and become popular without having to maintain a standalone portal, which, in many cases, turns into a brochure-like website. The following elements build up a reasonable online presence for your business.

E-mail address. Snail mail is a thing of the past, so you need an e-mail to appear on printed advertisements, business cards, flyers etc. It can be on a public e-mail domain such as Gmail or Yahoo, though it’s more professional to have it on your own domain. You can then go advanced and build e-mail lists for newsletter marketing using mailing management services (AWeber or Mail Chimp).

Online surveys. Occasionally, you will need to test variables such as customers’ satisfactory level or business demographics. Perform this research on the web rather than on paper, so you can disseminate surveys effectively and minimize the hassle of filling them in. An online survey builder is an effective tool for building and managing your surveys remotely, without needing a website of your own. You can send your surveys through e-mail, instant messaging or social media and have the submissions sent directly into your inbox.

A social media profile. LinkedIn is great for B2B connections, while Facebook is the thing for B2Cs. It’s best to focus effort on a single social network at first and see how much time you are willing to invest. Always monitor the level of user interaction and adjust your messages accordingly.

Google Alerts. Set one with the name of your company to see who has mentioned you publicly and maybe reply to it. You can also have alerts with the main terms your business is centered upon. This way, you will be aware of all the live discussions and blog posts over these topics that take place on the internet.

Google Places. Your online promotion will largely benefit from local listing of the company on the world’s major search engine. All you need is to sign up a Google account (it takes one minute) and register for Google Places: http://google.com/local/add. You will gain a business page on Google, where you can even run promotions for your customers.

All the investment involved in the above tasks is a couple of hours a day. Of course, at some point you will need a delegate to deal with the daily notifications on the social networks and manage your online image. However, you will certainly find the ROI was indeed worth it.

What are your experiences in going online? Please share your thoughts below!

About the Author: Laura Moisei writes for 123ContactForm web form builder that helps small businesses get in touch with their customers. Laura is a dedicated blogger and small business consultant with a passion for technology.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

For many entrepreneurs, local business means big business.

The digital world may have broken down boundaries, but in the rush to engage online with our  target audiences, let’s not forget about the opportunity knocking in our own backyards.

According to a recent study by Roost.com, just 15 percent of an average local business’s social media fans come from the city where the business is located. Small businesses must do more to reach their nearby customers.

And that starts with a ZIP code.

Just ask Jim Lafeber, owner of Simon’s Shine Shop, a high-end car wash in Chicago. Jim came to my center looking for an effective way to communicate directly with his customers. He had been supplementing his direct-mail promotions with social-media activities, but his mailing lists had become outdated and expensive. He needed to take his direct-mail distribution to the next level.

Jim turned to an affordable, tool called Every Door Direct Mail. Created by the U.S. Postal Service, Every Door Direct Mail helps small businesses send advertising mail to targeted audiences without the need to acquire an address list. It helps build traffic, find new customers and increase revenue, and is available from The UPS Store franchised network.

Jim selected his target ZIP codes and provided us with his design file, and we handled the logistics of printing and mailing more than 20,000 coupons. This saved him the valuable time and expense of having to purchase a mailing list or travel from printer to Post Office.  Jim also saved $190 a year in mail permit fees.

Today, he happily reports new customers are flocking to his carwash to redeem the coupons. And he’s connected with a new audience without spending a lot or dealing with the logistics of a mass mailing.

Solutions from reaching hundreds or thousands of customers to printing your next brochure are closer than you think. They might even be in your own backyard.

Whether coupons or postcards, direct mail remains an effective way to communicate directly with customers. Every Door Direct Mail can help the process by:

• Simplifying direct mail orders. You provide the mailing design, and The UPS Store handles the logistics—from printing to coordination with the local Post Office—so you don’t have to worry about the process.
• Reaching all of your target customers: You pick the target area—whether city, neighborhood or a specified distance from your business — and the mailing will be delivered to every door.
• Customizing your message. Today’s business communications are constantly evolving, and the old bulk printing approach has gone by the wayside. Quick, flexible printers can create quality collateral as your business and audience change.

Solutions from reaching hundreds or thousands of customers to printing your next brochure are closer than you think. They might even be in your own backyard.

About the Author: Tom Bellino is the co-owner of four The UPS Store locations in Chicago. He is a current Chairman’s Club member and past president of The Lakeview Chamber of Commerce. Prior to joining The UPS Store network in 2005, he was an executive at a local oil distribution company, preceded by an 18-year career at UPS, where he held several management positions.

Want to be our next guest author? Click here for details…

Photo Credit:  Homini:)