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.