The fastest way to succeed is to look as if you’re playing by somebody else’s rules, while quietly playing by your own. – Michael Korda

Using Instagram to Promote Your Small Business

One of the great things about social media is that it allows businesses to communicate with their target audience on a platform where they always are. Instagram is one of the platforms that a small business can use to reach their target market.

Instagram is a popular photo-sharing app that businesses can use to increase awareness of a specific campaign or to boost sales.

Let Pictures Tell a Story

The key to using Instagram is creating the proper balance between pictures that are interesting and fun with photos that are somewhat hard-sell. Check out what other successful Instagram users are doing and try to copy (imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!) what they are doing to create this balance.

Populate Your Account

To start on Instagram, you can cross post content to Facebook or ride on popular and trending hashtags. Once you have a good number of followers, you can become more assertive in your ways to increase your followers, such as holding a promotion.

Follow Back

When you follow some of your followers, you are telling them that you give importance to what they have to say. This will build attraction to your brand and it also give you’re the opportunity to repost, or “regram” a post from them that might be related to your business or industry. You might even come across photos of your products with good reviews in the caption.

Use Hastags

Take time to create hashtags that your small business can own and use these hashtags to connect with your followers. You can build the story of your content around a specific hashtag and track posts about your business.

Create a Different Offer

Don’t let your Instagram content mirror what you are posting to your other social media accounts. There should be added value to following your business for each social media platform.

Instagram can tell the story of your business in photos. Post behind-the-scene stories and let your customers get to know you and your business.

Creating great social media content

Blue Dog Marketing gives you some tips for creating great social media content. Get out there and start working on your social media strategy!

Navigating Social Media to Promote Your Small Business

Today’s small business owner knows that they have to be on social media to promote their business and brand. It can get confusing about which sites to use and how to best use them to market your business. Here are some tips to help you navigate the major social media networks.

Know Your Target Audience

First, and I feel I’m always saying this, but know your target audience. Here are some areas you can use to identify your target audience’s demographics:

·        Age

·        Gender

·        Occupation

·        Income level

·        Educational level

·        Type of Industry

·        Number of Employees

·        Type of Business

·        Revenue

Focus your blog content and posts on information that is relevant to your target audience.

Create Sharable Content

When you are posting to any social media network, limit your posts to 300-500 words. Anything longer and people won’t read it. Include images because people are more likely to read a post with a picture than one without.

Include a Call-to-Action. This is what action you want your readers to take. Do you want them to visit your website or buy your book? Include links that will take your readers to the correct webpage where they can perform the action you want them to.

Address your audience’s pain points and answer frequently asked questions about your products or services.

Social media is all about the sharing, so include a sharing button so your readers can share your post with their friends. It’s a great way to get more exposure for your posts.

Facebook

If you are going to use Facebook, you need to figure out how many times a day will want to post. Remember to respond to your fans if they make comments.

Use Facebook’s paid ads to promote your business, increase awareness and offer discounts.

Twitter

On Twitter, you need to know how many tweets you want to send out daily.

Your tweets could include links to your blog posts and product offers and discounts. 

Your tweets should include an image and a Call-to-Action.

Retweet influencers tweets. Follow new people. Respond to tweets.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is different. It’s really a business only social network.

Be sure to update your status a few times a week. Join and participate in industry groups. Create and update a company page. And be sure to use LinkedIn to research your prospects.

Google+

Google+ is Google’s attempt at a social network, so why not join this too. You can share your content a few times a week. Post your blog here too along with any product offers and discounts. Promote posts from industry influencers. Circle new people every day. Make sure your posts are public.

Pinterest

Pinterest is not for every business. It’s great for businesses such as wedding planners, custom jewelry designers, interior designers and businesses that sell women’s fashions. As you can guess, Pinterest is very visual so your business better be too.

If you are on Pinterest, be sure to add your keywords to your pins and make sure your pins link back to your website.

Create boards your clients might be interested in and follow new boards each week to get inspired.

YouTube

When you are marketing on YouTube, keep in mind that you should create videos that showcase your expertise. Have fun when you are creating your videos. Gather questions from your fans and create videos to address them. 

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer

Blue Dog Marketing is participating in the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk today. The walk raises money for breast cancer research and is also a great way for us to give back to our community!

Cause Marketing

       

We’ve written, and even v-logged, about cause marketing before. In October, you can see Blue Dog Marketing’s cause marketing involvement with the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer everywhere. We turn our website pink; our Blue Dog wears a pink ribbon in her hair; Laurie and Mary wear pink streaks in their hair; we participate in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on October 18. We raise money and enlist friends, family and clients to walk with us. It’s all about awareness and raising money for a good cause.

For us, this cause is near and dear to our hearts because Laurie is a breast cancer survivor. We raise money and walk so other women won’t have to go through what she has.

Cause marketing will give your business greater visibility when you associate yourself with a local charity. People like to do business with companies that give back to their communities and that support the causes they believe in too.

Cause marketing can range from actively being involved in a charity to sponsoring an event. Not-for-profit organizations can be anything in your community from a little league team to the American Cancer Society. Pick one and get involved. You’ll be doing good for your community and your business.

By the way, if you’re around Frontier Field on Sunday, October 18, join Blue Dog Marketing’s ‘Team Blue Dog’ for a fun and inspirational morning walk through downtown Rochester!

What we actually learn, from any given set of circumstances, determines whether we become increasingly powerless or more powerful. – Blaine Lee

Happy Columbus Day from Blue Dog Marketing!

 

3 Smart Ways to Market Your Small Business

As a small business owner, you know that you need to market your business effectively in order to stay in business. You need to attract new customers and retain current customers to continue a healthy level of business growth.

There are many ways to market your business but it is important to focus on the marketing pieces that will bring you the most revenue and best results.

Know Where Your Target Market Is

You need to know who your target market is so you can craft the proper message. You also need to know where to reach your target audience. For example, if you are a personal fitness trainer, you would advertise at a gym or a store that sells exercise equipment, not at a bakery or book store. Focus on where you can reach the largest number of your target audience as possible.

Delegate Responsibilities

If you have a team, learn how to delegate some business responsibilities to them so you can free up your time to focus on the most important business matters. As the face of your company, you should be out networking and building strong relationships with potential customers and vendors. Generating leads is a vital part of running a business so let the less important tasks fall to other team members.

Hand Over Marketing Undertakings

If you are busy running your business, perhaps marketing is not your strong point. Concentrate on what you do best, running your business, and hire a marketing firm to assist you with some of your marketing tasks. This way you will have the benefit of experts, doing what they do best, helping you grow your small business.

By effectively marketing your small business, you will ensure that it survives and grows.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Every day, the American Cancer Society helps people take steps to reduce their risk of breast cancer or find it early when it is easiest to treat. Today 1 of every 2 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer reaches out to them for help and support. They provide free information and services when and where women need it throughout their journey to get well. They are investing in groundbreaking research to find, prevent, treat, and cure breast cancer, and are working to ensure access to mammograms for women who need them. 

Because Blue Dog Marketing knows we can make a difference in the fight to end breast cancer. We know that by raising funds and walking in the American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event, we will help save lives from breast cancer. 

We believe that one day breast cancer will never steal another year from anyone's life. Making Strides is not only our opportunity to join our community to fight back against breast cancer, but it is also a way to inspire hope by raising funds and awareness to help those facing the disease. That's why Team Blue Dog is walking on Sunday, October 18^th. 

Join us or donate to a great cause at http://main.acsevents.org/goto/TeamBlueDog

Together, we can make strides to end breast cancer!

Brand Strategy

Learn about two components of brand strategy so you can build a strong brand for your small business.

It’s called a pen. It’s like a printer, hooked straight to my brain. – Dale Dauten

5 Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Often Make

Your website is a crucial piece of your online marketing and branding efforts so that is why getting it right from the start so is important. Unfortunately, many small businesses don’t get the right website or content up when they start out.

Here are the 5 most common mistakes you can avoid when starting out and creating your website:

1. Know Your Target Audience

You’ve decided to start your own business, so you hurry up and purchase a domain name and set up an easy (or free) website. If you don’t take the time to research who your target audience is and what their pain points are, any efforts you make can be in vain.

What information should you know before you start building your website? Ask yourself some questions about your target audience. For example, are your customers older? Then you may want to use a larger font size on your website.

Know their pain points. What problems are they coming to you to solve.

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     2. Keep Your Website Easy to Navigate and Read

A flashy or busy website will turn off visitors. When someone lands on your home page, they want to easily and quickly see what you do and how you can help them. It’s that simple!

3.  Make Your Website Mobile-friendly

With Google’s new (started in April 2015) search algorithm, if you want your site to rank high on search pages, your site must be mobile-friendly. Think about it…many people search for websites from their smart phones and tables every day. Your site must look good, be easy to read and simple to navigate on these smaller screens.

4. Keep Your Content Current

Many small businesses fail to update the content on their websites on a regular basis. If your product information and pricing have changed, your website should reflect those changes. Also, a site that has consistently new information will rank higher in searches.

There is nothing worse than going to a website and not seeing any new information or only seeing outdated information. Visitors will think you are out of business.

5. Doing Everything Yourself

Yes, you can build your own website and you can update your site yourself. But do you have the time to do this? Many ‘build-it-yourself’ websites don’t look professional and won’t impress your visitors. Also, updating your site can take time away from running your business.

An experienced marketing company, such as Blue Dog Marketing, can help you create a custom website that will help you stand out from your competition. We can also update your site for you. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a great first impression!

Use these tips to reach your target audience and establish a strong online presence for your small business.