Ways to Market Your Business - # 4

Today, small business owners need to be smart about how they reach their target audience. Blue Dog Marketing has several ideas that can help you get more customers. Here is idea number 4.

#4 – Engage in Cause Marketing. You may have heard the phrase “cause marketing” and wondered what it meant. Cause Marketing is where your company finds a charity that you feel very strongly about and donate money and time to it. Make sure you use your logo along with the charity’s logo in specific communications about your support of them. Encourage your employees to volunteer at functions you are co-sponsoring.

Companies that are involved with charities are looked upon as givers and others will want to do business with you. Your business gets a lot of exposure in the community and creates a positive reputation in consumers’ minds.

Ways to Market Your Business - # 3

Today, small business owners need to be smart about how they reach their target audience. Blue Dog Marketing has several ideas that can help you get more customers. Here is idea number 3.

#3 – Advertise on the web. You see ads every time you go online. If you see them, so will your customers. The internet can connect you with millions of potential customers that are looking for your products or services. One place we often recommend clients advertise is Facebook. Facebook allows you to get specific in your targeting of potential customers. You can specify a geographic area, an age range, or even an interest on Facebook and quickly reach that audience.

Ways to Market Your Business - # 2

Today, small business owners need to be smart about how they reach their target audience. Blue Dog Marketing has several ideas that can help you get more customers. Here is idea number 2.

#2 – Get involved in your Chamber of Commerce. It’s all about supporting other local small businesses! A Chamber of Commerce is a great way to get your name out in the local business community and network with other small businesses. But like any organization, you get out of it what you put in, so get involved. Participate by attending meetings and networking sessions.

Blue Dog Marketing is an active member of the Gates Chili Chamber of Commerce in Rochester, NY.

Ways to Market Your Business - # 1

Today, small business owners need to be smart about how they reach their target audience. Blue Dog Marketing has several ideas that can help you get more customers. Here’s our first of four suggestions:

#1 – Have a great website. OK, let’s start with, have a website. We’ll work on the great part.

In today’s world, if you don’t have a website, you won’t have a successful business. Depending on your business, you can be open 24/7, allowing your customers to shop and order your products.
A website also allows potential customers to learn more about your business any time they want.

Make sure your website is on your business cards, letterhead, all your marketing materials and email signature.

When’s the Best Time to Post on Social Media?

As a marketing consulting firm, we’re often asked when the best time to post on social media is, especially since social media is 24/7. Someone is always tweeting, blogging, and posting on Facebook. You can’t be online all day and still run your business, so how do you know when is the best time to reach your target audience?

Here are some difference ways to determine when your audience is online:

Social Media Tools

There are many great social media tools available. Hootsuite (https://hootsuite.com) is one of my favorites. It has an AutoScheduling functionality which schedules your messages at the best times to reach your audience.

For those of you who tweet, SocialBro (www.socialbro.com) is great because it provides daily reports on the best time to tweet.

If you blog using Google+, like we at Blue Dog Marketing do, Timing+ (http://timing.minimali.se/)  analyzes your historical post data to determine what time of day has the most potential for your posts to have the greatest impact.

Learn from the Research of Others

The best times to post on social media is a hot topic and there is a lot of research available. I found the information below on the best times to post in several different places on the web:

v  Facebook – between 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday

v  Google+ - between 9 – 11 a.m. weekdays

v  Twitter – between 1 – 3 p.m., Monday through Thursday

v  Pinterest – The optimal time to post is on Saturday morning. Other times are weekday evenings and weekends.

v  LinkedIn – post both before and after business hours, 7 – 9 a.m. and 5 – 6 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday

Keep in mind, if you have customers in different time zones, accommodate your posting times accordingly.

You don’t always have to be posting, but you do have to be regular and consistent. Your audience expects that, so pick days and times to tweet, blog or post and stick to them.

Too Busy to Blog? Invite a Guest!

As a small business owner, you know you need to create a web presence that gets you found in online searches, is popular, and educates and engages your target audience. This can be difficult, especially if you’re doing all parts of your business by yourself.

Today, Blue Dog Marketing met with a potential client who was telling us how he goes about blogging for his business. He really doesn’t have the time to blog on a regular basis and was feeling stressed about keeping up his blog. His solution was to reach out to other bloggers in his industry and ask them to guest blog on his site. And he had quite a few takers.

We’ve recommended this to clients and it’s great to see someone else had the same idea. The benefits of this approach to blogging are many. You’re building relationships with others in your industry. In the future, they may decide to use your service or partner with you on a project.

If your guest bloggers use your key words in their blog, it raises your SEO.

Your guest blogger gets extra exposure and helps build their reputation as an industry expert.

By inviting a guest to blog regularly on your site, you take one marketing piece off your plate and give yourself more time for other parts of your business. It’s a win-win solution that you might want to consider.

What's Your Call to Action?

In marketing “speak”, a call to action describes the next step we want our prospects to take.  For example, you may want a prospect to visit your website, subscribe to your newsletter, download a free white paper, or place an order. Think carefully about what action you would like your prospect to take.  Once you have identified this goal, you’ll be better able to motivate your prospects to act.

A call to action is how you collect names and email address of potential clients/customers.

But don’t limit your call to action to your website or marketing materials. Include your call to action in your emails, letters, presentations, and even your email signature.

Blue Dog Marketing wishes everyone a happy and safe 4th of July!

Blue Dog Marketing wishes you a safe and happy 4th of July!

How to Keep New Clients Happy While You’re on Vacation

It’s officially summer!  And, yes, you can be in business for yourself and take a vacation. You probably really need a vacation to recharge your batteries if you’re wearing the multiple hats that most business owners wear.

If your business is busy, taking that well needed vacation can be difficult. This is especially true if you have new clients who will have to wait until you return to get started. Don’t even think about taking work along on your vacation. It’s a vacation; use it to de-stress and relax.

So how can you handle your new clients’ expectations while you’re away?

One way is to give them “homework”. Meet with new clients before you leave and let them know you’ll be on vacation and when you’ll return. Talk about your plans for them for when you return and give them the “homework”. In my business, I often ask clients to compile what marketing pieces they’re currently using and have used in the past. Homework can easily be done by your client while you’re away.  When you return, you’ll be one step closer to competing the client’s project.

Planning ahead for vacation time is a smart thing to do. If you put systems in place in advance, it can be seamless for your clients and you. Enjoy your vacation!

Writing Solutions from a Marketing Company

Writing is one of the main ways in which we communicate with our customers and prospects. There are different types of writing solutions which are needed like advertising, branding, translation, editing, copywriting and many more. Good writing is something which is very important to a small business to help get the right message to the right audience.

A good marketing company can help you write content for your website, write your newsletters, and write content for your marketing pieces. A marketing firm can also assist you in discovering who your target market is.

Marketing companies can also write press releases and distribute them. Press kit can be created. There are a lot of marketing companies that can assist you with your writing.  As marketing professionals, we are focused on ideas rather than just words and we can structure all your communications in such a way that the key brand messaging builds your brand higher.

Give Blue Dog Marketing a call for all your writing needs.