How many times have you called a company and was forced to wait through horrible waiting music, only to have the conversation end ineffectively. Your time is valuable and so is your customer’s. When offering any customer support never forget that you’re actually serving two problems: the customer’s issue; customer’s perception of your company. Although [...]
If you run a company today, having a Facebook page is practically essential. It’s free to create and a great way to stay in contact with your customers. Below are some tips to keep your customers engaged on the social networking site: 1. Post consistently. Not everyone has the time to post every day, but [...]
Technology leader Nokia announced their new program, “Invent With Nokia,” which allows inventors to develop their product in partnership with Nokia’s development team and resources. If your idea is chosen, Nokia applies for a patent and rewards the you financially. The benefits are numerous, including covering all the costs of protecting the idea (which can [...]
If you have a location-based business, then you have to check out Foursquare, a social network built around the concept of “check-ins”. When customers come to your front door, they’ll have the ability to check into your business using their mobile device, allowing their friends to see where they are. For more information on the [...]
Your company’s website needs to be many things to many people. It is the 24-hour sales force, your inventory manager, customer service rep, and billboard, all in one! If you’ve spent time developing your site as the utilitarian tool to actually sell your product, it’s still only half finished. Today a website needs to be [...]
Planning is an essential part of marketing your business and can be the difference between success and failure. Even with market shifts, a marketing plan gives your business a foundation. Your marketing plan can be created with only a few steps. 1. Purpose and Mission Define success, and don’t let it be entirely determined by [...]
Although we’ve talked about marketing like you’re small, one of the key elements of the concept is reaching out to local customers. This means more than just advertising locally, but engaging your community to generate word of mouth about your business. Local customers are the foundation of building a regional brand, which may one day [...]
Building a brand around your products takes a sense of purpose and intent to share the values and beliefs your product embodies. Although it would be nice to have your product speak for itself, it’s often marketing that has to tell your story. Developing a branding manifesto is a clear and confident way to express [...]
If you’ve been watching America’s Next Great Restaurant on NBC season, you probably know that the winner, Jamawn Woods, is a Detroit native. The grand prize is an opportunity to open up a restaurant chain across the country. With the many weeks of advertisement from the show, as well as celebrity endorsement, there is little [...]
Discounts are all the rage into the slowly recovering economy. Within the last few years online retailers, along with other digital coupon vendors have created a lifestyle around saving money. Should your business jump on the trend or does offering discount cheapen your product? It depends. If you do offer a coupon, consider offering a [...]
Making decisions with low risk typically bring a low reward. To be competitive in any industry it is important to stand out as a company with a vision and a mission that evokes change. For many business owners this means finding a voice that speaks to the customer that isn’t typical. Defining the fringe of [...]
If you’ve just begun advertising your business, it can be easy to discount the effectiveness of direct mail. After all, with so many forms of electronic marketing, does printed advertising make sense? The simple answer is yes. The Direct Mail Association’s 2010 Response Rate Trend Report shows that direct mail had a 3.42% response rate, [...]
Every successful corporation had it’s humble beginnings as a local “mom and pop” operation. Although creating and growing a business can be rewarding, too often business owners attempt to grow too fast. As your company grows, it is important to not forget the values that brought you to the top. Even with hundreds of employees, [...]
Social media should be a vital part to your marketing. Today the Internet is ubiquitous, through the us of smart phones, table computers, and laptops. Usage of social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter has shown significant growth each year. With an estimated 147.8 million users on social networks (63.7% of all Internet users), [...]
As an entrepreneur, you’re often tasked with doing everything that falls through the cracks. This can include everything from recording keeping to order a case of copier paper. As someone that has started their own business, wearing many “hats” is what made your company thrive. This D.I.Y. attitude has helped you succeed so far, so [...]
Last week Amazon launched their new Cloud Drive service, which allows users to store their photos, music, apps, and any other kind of data onto Amazon’s web servers. For the past few years there has been a push to “cloud computing” where software traditionally purchased in a box is now offered as an online service. [...]
A new survey by Eversave, a company that offers daily deals (similar to Groupon), published their results on women’s love/hate relationship with bargain websites. Eversave’s Facebook page publishes the daily deals made available through their website. About 45% of their customers discovered the deal on Facebook. The deal shows up in their news feed by [...]