Embrace Bad Customer Reviews For Marketing Success

bad customer reviewsWhile the dawn of the internet has brought us e-commerce and a brand new channel to market, it has also empowered the consumer in an unprecedented way. Websites like Trip Advisor and Review Centre have given unhappy customers a very public platform on which to vent their spleen about any perceived injustice and this can have business owners running for cover.

All of this can be quite scary for business owners who can start living in fear of the dreaded online bad review. Unlike any other form of review, this is as public as it gets, and often they can appear on the first page of the search results pages when somebody Googles your business name.…

Continue reading

Tired Of Hearing About Facebook? The Value of a Facebook Fan May Change Your Mind

If you are a small company, chances are you have taken advantage of every free opportunity you can to market your product or service – including Facebook. Creating a Facebook page for your company is a great idea not only because it is free, but because it offers yet another medium for which customers can find your product or service.

value of a feacbook fan

Today there are approximately 750 million active Facebook users, so you likely have a large audience who feels comfortable using this platform to learn about different companies that peak their interest. Furthermore, Facebook is about the easiest way to reach out to family and friends.…

Continue reading

Promoting Your Business Through Word of Mouth Marketing

word of mouth marketing for your small businessAn effective marketing strategy is vital for any business. When paid advertisements, billboards and brochures were all the rage back in the day, there was a mad scramble to get the best, albeit affordable, designs to get mass attention. Nowadays, social media is at the forefront of marketing that everything and anything which it encompasses seems to be a necessity for businesses to use.

The one thing that past and present marketing strategies have in common is the tools which business owners use in order to grab the attention of consumers and ensure that their brands are the first thing that comes to mind for their target market.…

Continue reading

8 Things You Need To Know About Social Networking

social networking tips

Social networking has taken the business world by storm. From Facebook sharing to tweeting to actually attending seminars and meet-ups, the goal has always been to be more visible. Social networking is more than just having a consistent online presence. Offline interaction is as important as online engagement.

Social networking should not in any way be misconstrued as a replacement for face-to-face interaction. It is a marriage of your business’ on and offline persona. Belonging in communities which foster growth for your business is not only a way to let people know that your business is “out there”, it would also serve as your support group, your security blanket for a very unpredictable and often harsh realities of the business industry.…

Continue reading

What The Panda Google Algorithm Change Means To Small Business Owners

In February 2011, Google made big news on the Internet by publishing an algorithm change for search engine relevancy.  By and large this was designed to punish duplicate content farms that re-purpose the same written content over and over in different forms.

I’ve seen plenty of panicked content online about what this means to e-marketers and website developers, but little in the way of how small business owners can capitalize on the Google algorithm change.

Winners and Losers

There were plenty of losers that aggregate informational content that are now scrambling to learn what has happened and re-strategize ways to defeat the Google changes.  …

Continue reading

5 Biggest Website Mistakes for Small Businesses And How to Fix Them

5 biggest website mistakes and how to fix themYour website is the front door to your business. It’s imperative potential clients and customers  know where to find you, and once there, have a clear idea what your company does and how it can benefit them.

Implement these simple, inexpensive tips to ensure your website is achieving those goals.

1. Not claiming your Google Place Page

Look up your business in Google Maps and click on your business listing (or “Place Page”). Your business name will be on the left and a map on the right.  In between, at the top of the page, is a link that reads either “Business Owner?”…

Continue reading

Keeping Your Customers Coming Back For More

Attracting customers is relatively easy, you just need to have a very convincing marketing strategy. The hard part is getting them to come back. If you are running a website (as most of us are), the challenge is to get a steady, if not increasing, number to visit your site everyday.

keeping customers coming back

It is not as easy as it seems, mostly because some people think that there’s no compelling reason to visit your site again. When you check your site statistics, you have a fairly good idea of what attracts your customers but what if you stray a bit from that? Does it mean that you won’t get enough attention?…

Continue reading

Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

Perfect Your Small Business Skills With Open Courseware

While yes it is true that one doesn’t need a Masters of Business Administration degree in order to run and manage a successful small business, the leadership and business skills one learns pursuing an MBA can in fact help one launch their business to even further heights. Unfortunately not everyone has the time or the money to return to school in order to learn a new set of managerial and business skills. But thanks to open courseware, it might just be possible.

Open courseware is a term used to refer to free online classes offered by various prestigious institutions such as Yale University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.…

Continue reading

5 Ways To Be A Social Media Authority

Social media is an all – important avenue for all business types since business owners realize its worth. When it was a new trend, not many people thought that it was going to live up to its hype in the world of business but just look at how it evolved from connecting old friends to connecting business contacts.

5 Ways To Be A Social Media Authority

One could not count on their fingers how many gurus, specialists and trend setters there are in the world of social media. So what makes them believable? Why is it that more people take their word rather than anyone else’s? It’s because they have established themselves as the authority in their own niche.…

Continue reading

Running A Business Is A Popularity Contest

Have you ever joined a pageant? If not, have you ever watched one? I’m sure you have. Apart from a contestant’s beauty and brains, people look for personality. A kind of joie de vivre which would entice the audience to vote for them and the judges to like them.

running a business is a popularity contest

Running a small business is a lot like joining a pageant, it is first and foremost a popularity contest if you will. The more people know about you, like what you do and what you offer, the higher likelihood that they would actually do business with you. That’s one of the reasons why social media is a great place to market your brand.…

Continue reading