Tips for Using Social Media in Your Small Business

When a small business engages in social media, they must create a strategy to ensure their efforts will be worthwhile and will make sure that each tweet, post, update, and comment fall within their brand guidelines. As a small business, you will want to make sure that the strategy you employ will place you in the best possible position to grow online, and will help you avoid the pitfalls that can negatively affect your company.

When on social media, your small business should make sure to:

Integrate Your Existing Marketing Efforts

By integrating your marketing efforts, you will ensure that your message stays consistent throughout all your marketing activities.

Automatically Post to Various Sites

Save time by reducing the number of times you must visit each site you post to. Use an application such HootSuite to schedule your posts to multiple sites with minimal work.

Remain Professional at All Times

Social media encourages an informal setting for communicating. It is important that each employee understands that their online conduct reflects on the company. Employees should conduct themselves in a fun, but professional manner.

Engage With Your Audience

Use social media to communicate and engage with your audience. Be sure to assess your resources in order to avoid stretching your resources too thin, and only dedicate your efforts to those sites in which you will be able to routinely participate.

Become an Industry Leader

Each of your posts should be well thought out. By adding quality content and by being consistent in your positive message, you will be seen as an industry expert.

Don't Give Too Much Away

If you give away too much information, your connections will no longer need to purchase your service. Save your most valuable information for your paying clients.

Are You Using Social Media for Your Small Business?

Not adapting to current trends in business, such as social media, can make you look outdated and out of touch. Today's customers rely on social media to find your products or services and expect to find your company on social media. If you are not, you’re missing opportunities. Also, a lack of a social media presence will not allow search engines to find you and improve your search results.

Search engines are always trying to provide better real-time search results and have begun to index websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media websites will have a greater impact in allowing your clients to find you first when searching for your product or service on any search engine.

Facebook claims over 500 million active members. 100 million members actively use LinkedIn. By having a presence on these and similar sites and by leveraging them to find and communicate with your target audience, you will begin to position yourself as a modern business, whose market is important enough for you to communicate with.

3 Quick Marketing Tips

1. Update your website, at least once a month, every month

Your website should be kept up-to-date and fresh with new content. It is the shop front of your business; it is important to your brand that your website is kept up-to-date. If you don't have time to regularly do this, hire a marketing consulting company to do so.

2. Be an expert

You know your business and industry. You are an expert. Share that knowledge. Write a blog and associate it with your website. Write an article for an industry magazine. Write a white paper and offer it free on your website (this is a great way to collect contact information from prospects). Whatever you do, become known as the expert.

3. Update your voice mail message each month

Voice mail is an area of branding that we often forget and this can be an opportunity to have a subtle but compelling sales message. How many voice messages do you receive each day/week/month?

How to Market Your Small Business

Marketing. Not usually the favorite subject for small business owner. But it's the lifeblood of your business. Marketing is what draws customers to you and gets the word out about your products. So why do we tend to resist it so much?

Most small business owners went into business because they love what they do. They’re experts in their fields, but not marketing professionals. But, marketing is one of those necessities of owning your own business. It doesn't have to be costly and painful. It does, however, have to be consistent.

You should be marketing for the customers you want in 3-6 months, so you can see why steady efforts are important. Taking a break from your marketing can have disastrous consequences in the months ahead. So how do you stay on top of things? Here are a few simple steps to make your marketing flow easier like a well-oiled machine.

1. For best results, start by writing a marketing plan. Include different components such as social media, blogging, and press releases.

2. Pick one or two things to focus on at a time. Once you get that working smoothly, incorporate something new into the mix.

3. Make marketing part of your daily routine. Allocate a set amount of time to it each day. You need to decide how much time is enough.

How to Market a Small Business

Your small business works on a tight budget. Therefore, your marketing strategy should be cost effective.  So, how do you cost effectively market your small business?

Today’s technology allows small businesses to gain visibility and accessibility without too much of a financial cost. Your business should have a dedicated website.  A website is a place to drive your leads from social media sites and to give detailed information about your products or services.  Having the right strategy for search engine optimization, combined with a well-designed site can increase your business.

Social media is the most economical and effective means of reaching current clients/prospects and advertising your business. Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest, help create awareness and bring leads to your business.  These sites only require time and effort to be successful.

Small businesses can struggle to create and implement a marketing plan or they can hire experts, such as Blue Dog Marketing, who have the expertise to combine technology with time-tested marketing strategies to help them. 

If you’re a small business, don’t struggle with your marketing.  Give Blue Dog Marketing a call.  We can help you be successful!

Connecting with Your Customers Using Email Newsletters

Even if your small business uses social media, there is still a place for newsletters in your company’s marketing. Email newsletters are a very cost-effective platform for connecting with prospects and customers.

Email newsletters offer numerous advantages:

Brand building. Email newsletters enable you to build your brand - not so much by touting your product or service, but by positioning yourself as an expert and/or thought leader in your industry. They show your target market that you stay up to date on industry trends.

Lead nurturing. Email newsletters help keep prospects in the sales pipeline. When sent at regular intervals, email newsletters keep you top of mind with prospective clients by reminding them of who you are and what you do.

Relationship building. If your business has a lengthy sales cycle, an email newsletter can build trust with your prospects by demonstrating your knowledge, expertise and experience on the topics that matter most to your target audience.

Cross-selling and up-selling. Don't assume that your clients know everything about your business. An email newsletter is a great way to highlight other products or service areas they may not know about.

Company promotion. The best email newsletters keep the marketing and promotion to a minimum. You can, and should, tell your customers and prospects about new products, special offers, and other company news. But also let them know if you have a Facebook page so they can become a fan. Did you launch a redesigned website? Ask them to check it out. Let them know if you’re attending a trade show or hosting an event. When used properly, an email newsletter is an excellent platform to promote your other marketing activities.

Be consistent once you start an email newsletter. Schedule your newsletter at times that are appropriate to your audience and remain on schedule. For some businesses, once a month is good, for others, once a quarter works.

Use catchy email subject lines to grab people's attention. Even the best newsletters won't have an impact if they don't get opened and read. Update your email list on a regular basis to make sure it's current.

Most important, provide real value to your readers through articles that address their most pressing issues and concerns. When you consistently provide valuable content, people will look forward to reading your newsletter, and will see you as a trusted source of information - a critical step in turning today's prospects into tomorrow's paying customers.

Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business

Marketing assist a small business in how well it is known. Marketing makes the difference between a successful, growing business and a stagnant one. The more aware people are about your business and the service it provides, the more traffic you are likely to experience.

Some marketing tips to help you grow your business include:

Explain your products well

It is important to explain your products effectively. They need to be depicted in a way that prospects are able to get a clear sense of what is being offered.

Seek to market both old and new items a like so that the clients get a good sense of what the entire business engages in. Keep your customers and prospects aware of sales and promotional offers by sending out regular newsletters. To save on costs, create an electronic newsletter that can also be posted on your website.

Use social media

Social media is quickly becoming one of the most popular forums for small businesses. Because many people consistently interact with these sites makes them ideal platforms to market your business. You can set up a Facebook page and talk about your business and new products, run contests and promote sales. You can use social media to link back to your website so prospects can learn more about your offerings.

 

Community Engagement for Small Business

At a recent awards dinner, one of the winners, a successful small business owner, said “if you’re successful in business, you need to give back to the community”.  How do you accomplish that while marketing your business at the same time?

Businesses with greater visibility tend to be more profitable. And you don't have to invest a great deal of your marketing dollars to both give back to the community and reach new customers. Here are some ideas for your small business:

Team sponsorship - Your business can sponsor a youth sport team, such as a little league team. For a fee, your logo is placed on the back of each player's shirt, giving you extended exposure to players, families and fans.

Cause marketing - Local charities often struggle financially, relying on the community to provide support. Individuals and businesses are the backbone for many organizations, providing financial backing, in-kind donations and volunteer time to help these charities thrive. Aside from volunteering your time, you can host a fundraiser or find other ways to raise money for the charity of your choice. One such example that one of our clients is using is to donate $1 for every pizza purchased on a certain night of the week. They picked a night that business is normally slow and have found that orders have increased. This fundraising event is profitable for both the charity and the business.

Print media - If your business is involved in a charity event, send out a press release to announce the event and let the community know about your company's involvement.

Social media – Your company’s social media presence can be used to promote a charity that you’re involved with. Use your Facebook page to announce an upcoming event and your business' involvement. Ask people to like your page, run a contest giving away free tickets or other prizes through Facebook. Use Twitter and other social media platforms to get the word out. Sharing tweets and liking postings are small efforts that can yield big results.

Company volunteer days - If you can afford it, allow your employees to volunteer on company time with a community group. Give your participating employees t-shirts with your company's name printed on them to wear so they advertise your business at the event.

Successful small businesses that maintain a high level of engagement with their communities benefit not only the community, but their business and their employees. You may find that your community engagement strategies are a great marketing tool.

 

3 Marketing Strategies to Increase Your Sales

Marketing can be simple and easily customized to your small business. Correctly done, marketing will increase your sales. No matter how long you have been in business, how tech savvy you are, or what type of business you have, certain marketing strategies always work. Here are three strategies for you to try to increase your sales:

1. Reconnect with past clients - Studies show that it is at least 5 times easier and less expensive to re-engage a past client, as it is to enroll a new one. Most businesses are so busy trying to bring in business with new clients that they forget to take good care of their past clients. Make time to reach out to your past clients. Create a desirable offer just for them so they can pick up with you where they left off.

2. Hold your own event - Hosting your own event, live or virtual, is a great way to create visibility for your work while adding value to your prospects. It’s easy. First, choose your topic. Then choose a date and promote the event everywhere you can.  You can host a live workshop or a webinar. Make sure to deliver great content and present an tempting opportunity which will encourage your audience to work with you. You can charge a nominal fee for the event or host it for free. Either way, it's a great opportunity to meet and connect with prospects that need you.

3. Package what you know – Share your knowledge and expertise for free. Create an e-book in a PDF format and publish it on your website. Or, you can teach through a series of webinars. Capture prospects information when they sign up for the free book or webinar. This way you have a great prospect list to work from for future offers. Use a strong call to action and provide an irresistible offer to the next paid step

Remember, your offer must be desirable to your clients and prospects. It’s all about their needs.

Decide what your strategy looks like and commit to it.