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Small Businesses
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Once you have bought or set up you business venture, you don’t just open up a store and relax, waiting for people to come streaming inside. The purpose of marketing is to let people know of the existence of your business. As a small business, marketing expenses should be the first to cut off from other expenditures. This is because there are several ways of marketing your small business without spending a lot of money. With the availability of the digital tools, you can meander around it and come out successful. Here are some marketing strategies to implement in your business. 1. Leverage your community As a beginner, learn to think locally. Never run after the whole country thinking that you will get more customers. Make your community a priority. This is because they are your biggest fans who can relate to your struggles and achievements. To capture their attention, be the one who sponsors local teams in their games, or other charity drives.in addition to this, print bookmarks about your business and let them know of your existence and the products you offer. Find the ideal customers and approach them for the same. 2. Network The best way to build a business is through networking. By networking, an entrepreneur creates a brand for themselves, and they also get to know more people who could in one way or another chip in to their businesses. This is a gradual process that requires patience and dedication. Once you have strong connections, you will have grasped the biggest asset for any business and nothing will stop you from achieving your dreams. 3. Ask for referrals. The moment you get a customer, never shy away from asking them for referrals. Simply put, just request them to bring along a friend the next time...
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December 6, 2018There are various methods of advertising your business. You can choose to use traditional methods or you can also choose to go the digital way by searching on the internet for ‘online marketing for small business‘. Different methods yield different results. The following are some of the methods that can be used for marketing: 1. Listing on Google My Business: It will cost you nothing to list your business on Google My Business or GMB. This will give your brand plenty of visibility and it can be very effective at no cost. 2. Have a business newsletter: Have a newsletter that gives plenty of information about your company. You should also include updates on new products and full details about your location and contacts. This newsletter can be posted on the internet to make it more visible. 3. Approach the media: Media is another way of marketing, though it is a more traditional way. You could contact a journalist of a local daily for the purpose of getting a short feature done about your business in the local dailies. This will give your business good exposure. 4. Get involved in online networking events: It is important to use platforms like LinkedIn which is geared for professionals. This is a good avenue for advertising and giving information about your products. You should also be keen to participate actively in several other networking platforms. 5. Have a blog: Create a blog about your brand. You can have conversations online with your customers about the products on your blog. You should continuously update it with new information about your business and your products. This is also an effective and cost friendly way of marketing. 6. Use social media: Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are great places to post details about your...
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Customer service is more important today than it’s ever been for two reasons: increasing competition means that the consumer has more choice and, therefore, more power; social media means that unhappy customers can quickly spread news of their discontent. Conversely, having a great customer service offering can create a good news story for your small business, and help it gain a reputation as a brand that can be trusted. With that in mind, here are four helpful tips for small businesses who are looking to improve or expand their customer service offering. 1. Don’t Keep Customers Waiting We live in an increasingly fast-paced world, and consumers simply don’t have the time or inclination to wait for a response if they’ve raised a concern. The longer you leave a customer waiting for a response, the unhappier they’re likely to become, escalating something that could perhaps have been resolved quickly and amicably. That’s why it’s essential that customers are answered as quickly as possible, whether they telephone, email or contact you via an online helpdesk. Customers feel reassured when they know that they’ve been heard, so the initial response is all important. 2. Make The Most Of Automation Opportunities More and more customers today want to contact companies directly via their website, whether they want to raise a concern, ask a question or simply give feedback. The ideal way to enable this is to have in place a powerful yet easy to use web-based helpdesk application. With this in place, the small business owner can be assured that their customers can get real-time and immediate support 24-hours a day, seven days a week. An automated customer service application also allows small business owners to have agents working in different time zones across the world, which is especially good news for those with...
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September 8, 2018
Why Social Media Marketing is Important for Small Businesses
The power of social media marketing cannot be ignored especially for small businesses. Research has shown that about 72% of the small business enterprises that applied social media marketing recorded a significant increase in sales and profits. For a fact, social media marketing remains the cheapest form of marketing. This makes it cost effective and ideal for small businesses since it does not add much to their expenditure budget. Creating an account/profile is free on most social media platforms. The cost only becomes significant if you need to enroll for paid ads to advertise your business brand. Below are some of the reasons why social media marketing is important for small businesses. 1. Creating traffic Social media marketing, especially through the common sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, create a lot of traffic. When a small business owner posts on the social media, his/her followers will view and comment. Sharing of the posts by many customers makes the post popular, reaches more people and the chances of acquiring new customers are very high. More traffic on your site will reflect more work, more deals and certainly more new customers. 2. Boosting site’s Search Engine Optimization ranking A killer content is required on social media to boost your site’s SEO ranking. For a small business, coming up with such a content is somehow easier as opposed to a big business. This is because the big content space is used to explain just a few items hence much creativity is employed. When your SEO ranking is boosted, many people will now be able to access your site after searching for any content related to your products. This will not only increase your customer base but also present you with an excellent opportunity to expand. 3. Opportunity to learn your audience/customers Social media...