Let’s Talk: What is Conversational Marketing and Why it Matters

Two-way communication is necessary for building any healthy relationship. For business owners, open conversation is vital to understand customer needs and provide services and recommendations that solidify trust and confidence. It’s this understanding and intelligence that make good business owners even better, and make customer relationships strong.

Conversational marketing

These important conversations are probably commonplace in most in-person customer interactions, but when it comes to your marketing communications, does the conversation stop?

Often, when marketing to their contacts, business owners rely exclusively on less effective, one-way communication channels like email. But some successful businesses have begun to leverage conversational marketing to more deeply engage clients, improve loyalty and increase revenue.…

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Small Business Accounting Software Done Right (and Free)

It isn’t often that I run across a new tool for small business CEOs that I can wholeheartedly endorse, but I’ve run across just such a tool in the last little while and I want to pass that on. ZipBooks is a free tool to manage your billing, expenses and time. It tracks everything you need to stay on top of your accounts receivable.

ZipBooks logo

There are a lot of invoicing tools out there where it starts to feel like a flea market–lots of free and cheap options but you can’t quite be sure of the quality until you bring it home.…

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5 Ways to Make your Small business More Energy Efficient

Looking after the environment isn’t just for multinational corporations. Small businesses have a lot of reasons to get involved as well.

Small business goes green

As a small business owner, you probably already know the importance of being energy efficient. But most business lack the data, expertise or time to implement it properly. A lot of small business owners simply don’t know where to start or how much to spend on making their business energy efficient.

So, here are five simple things you can do right away to cut the energy your business consumes:

Switch to Laptops

It’s hard to imagine a workplace without computers now, but desktops aren’t really necessary for most professions.…

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What Credit Unions Can Learn from the MHR Breach

Wherever there is money, there are sure to be a few individuals who will want to get their hands on that profit. Unfortunately, hackers can attack any organization in any industry, and the hotel and restaurant industry is no exception.

Cyber attack on hotels

According to the Credit Union Times, Denver-based Millenium Hotels & Resorts North America (MHR) was the unfortunate victim of a cyber attack in August 2016. If you are part of a credit union, you could find yourself in similar situations, even if you may not be dabbling in that specific industry. However, that does not mean that you can’t learn a thing or two from what they had to go through.…

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4 Reasons to Create a Video Case Study for Your Business

Steve Jobs once said that customers don’t know what they want until it’s been shown to them. The late entrepreneurial pioneer used this to Apple’s advantage, identifying a problem and solving it in the simplest, most approachable manner possible. The success of this method is unquestionable – Apple fast became the world’s most valuable company.

Apple Inc

You might have the best product in the world, but if customers don’t know how it will improve or simplify their lives, they will not buy into it. This concept forms the core of advertising and marketing, but is often neglected when it comes to constructing a company website.…

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5 Forgotten Offline Marketing Tactics That Work

With everyone using the Internet to look for information, shop, and connect with others, a lot of businesses have focused all of their efforts on implementing online marketing strategies. However, there are still several offline marketing tactics that truly work, and five of them are listed below. Keep reading to learn more about them, and consider adding them to your marketing plan.

Billboards at Times Square NYC

Free Promotional Items

Are you planning on attending a business conference? Do you own a retail location where your cashier can give a freebie with every purchase? Then consider having branded items made that you can then give away.…

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Choosing a Company Car to Suit Your Needs

Since most people also use their company car for personal use, it’s unsurprising that there’s a wide range of potential usage points to consider. For many, the luxury saloons that most people imagine a company car to be simply aren’t practical for everyday driving. You’ll also have to take into account additional factors like tax and your overall budget.

Considering BIK

When choosing any company car, the amount of benefit-in-kind (BIK) tax that you’ll have ti pay should be a main consideration. This is based on the P11D, which is from the form filed by employers to the tax office as part of their Pay As You Earn registration.…

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Ways In Which You Can Remain Motivated While Doing Business

One of the huge problems associated with the day to day life of a businessman is that it is really easy to end up losing motivation. In order to be truly successful in life, you have to be motivated. You do get a thrill when the business opens its doors but that quickly disappears. However, after some time you will be faced with challenges and motivation can easily disappear as the thrill is gone.

Busy CEO

When you are a business owner, there are benefits that are automatically gained. However, reminding yourself the reason why you are an entrepreneur is a necessity.

There are various things that can be done in order to remain motivated.…

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Tips to Start Your Business on the Right Financial Footing

Starting a business will be one of the most difficult things that you ever do, so many new things to learn, so much hard work to put in and a lot of pressure on making it a success. The best thing you can do for your future business is to ensure that before you start, you have everything in place that you are going to need, fail to prepare and prepare to fail, this motto could not be more true when it comes to a start-up business.

Startup financial management

One of the key things that you need to have in place is your finances and a plan for your finances once the business starts, here are some tips on how you can ensure your financially prepared to start a business.…

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5 Organizational Tips For Smart Business Money Management

Personal money management is tough enough, but when you try to manage money for an entire business or brand, things become even more complicated and convoluted. And that’s why there are specialized tools and organizational tips specifically for business finance managers.

Business money management

Five tips in particular might include hints like making sure that you shorten your selling cycles, use social elements for natural brand promotion, get feedback from early adopters, keep personal and professional finances separate, and use project management software to help synchronize all of your business communications with respect to money flow.

Shorten Your Cycles

A recurring problem in business finances happens when financial cycles take too long to complete.…

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