Posted by Biz Central USA Marketing Team on August 10, 2009 under Small Biz Marketing | 
On average, 63% of businesses use social networking to build
relationships and awareness of their brand.
Customer Relationship Development and Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is at an all-time low, possibly as a result of reduced business focus on actual relationships, and an increased focus on “customer relationship management” systems. Online social networks allow a prospective customer or prospective member to easily create a real connection with individuals in a given organization. This allows for the customer to put a face with an interaction, rather than just a computer screen. This in turn creates a real human perception of the company that is welcoming to business relationships.
Extremely Low-Cost Marketing Tool
Small business owners should engage in social networking because it is an easy and inexpensive way to connect to your consumers, and potentially form business partnerships. Additionally, it provide an opportunity to network with people who have similiar interests, problems which you can solve and business goals you can help them achieve.
Easily Share knowledge with Consumers
By combining social networking with other technologies (such as RSS, Blogs, Bookmarking etc.) your company will make it easy for current and future consumers to “subscribe” to updates from your organization. This is a way to share your company’s important information (Promotions, Articles, News etc.) without any additional effort.
Differentiate your service with “brand you”
Social networking provides another outlet for building your brand; Evenmore, it helps you promote “brand you” and not just the services that you offer. You will have a variety of interactions with potential consumers, future partners and other people of interest. Express your company as one that has real people working for it, people that love their company and believe in the products or services it offers. This genuineness will come through in the conversations that you engage in. This is your company’s brand; it is what make your company special.
Posted by Biz Central USA Marketing Team on July 20, 2009 under Small Biz Marketing |
It’s summertime and for many companies that can mean a slump in business! That means there is no better time than now to increase your public
relations efforts… free press seems like a much better option than ramping up the advertising dollars.
There are actually many ways to promote your company’s products, services, and events that will essentially cost you nothing but time. The following tips will help you get the knowledge and understanding of simple PR and marketing tactics that can get you on your way to a profitable summer business season!
Public Relation & Marketing Tactics that won’t Bust the Budget
Send out a Press Release: Having a press release about current company news, promos and new services could possibly be one of the most important things any small business should do. Not only can you submit your press release to your local media (TV stations, newspapers, radio stations etc.), but you can also use it to directly reach consumers.
Use your Social Networking Skills: Social Networking has added new ways to conduct business and build your market awareness. By utilizing it, you have the ability to form communities, groups and events with others interested in your products and services. Also, take the opportunity to network with other professionals and build prosperous partnerships.
Go Back to the Roots of Marketing, Word of Mouth: Mixing new methods of marketing and PR with traditional methods will highly benefit the results of any campaign. Still today, over 90% of customers identify word of mouth as the best, most reliable and trustworthy source about ideas and information on products and services. So, tell everyone one you know, and then tell them to tell everyone they know.
Update Current Customers with an Email Blast: By maintaining a constant stream of communication with your current clients, not only will you form a better relationship with them, but you will keep them on the radar with your current happenings and leave the door open to returning customer sales!
The importance of public relations is often under-minded as something only for large organizations and corporations. The truth is, PR comes in many shapes and sizes for everyone, and any company large or small should be using public relations actively to promote their brand.
Posted by Biz Central USA Marketing Team on May 26, 2009 under Small Biz and Entrepreneurship |
Traditional means of marketing are not dead; in fact, they are still very much alive and proving to be effective. Tactics such as face-to-face networking and word-of-mouth is proof of this. When deciding on what business networking methods you will use, it is important to first, understand how networking can work for you. Second, research what groups are right for you. Third, make a goal for what you want to accomplish.
Business networking in the form of joining and meeting with trade groups, industry associations, chambers of commerce and similar organizations in person can flat out increase your bottom line. By meeting other professionals in person, on common ground and at a place of mutual interest, you will begin to form relationships among your community. Once you start building relationships and regularity among these groups, members will begin to remember you, your abilities and your expertise. The next time a member needs something in your field; they will remember you and therefore will probably reach out to your small business. In essence, you will form a loyal network of followers who may at some point need your business, refer your business or want to collaborate on a joint goal. Overall, business networking is a great way to reach out to your local community, gain new prospects, learn new methods and in the end increase sales.
The possibilities are endless when it comes to networking and the cost of membership is usually low, but to avoid wasteful spending and time, you must do your research. An easy place to start is to check out your local chamber of commerce. Stop by the city office or attend a meeting to learn a little more about them. By joining the chamber of commerce, you will be able to reach more local businesses and you will have an array of resources available to you. Businesses in the chamber of commerce will vary in industry, sector, demographics and capital, giving you a more versified group to interact with.
Another option is to join an industry related trade group or association. Many trade groups and associations are national, but have local chapters that meet regularly. Trade groups and associations will differ from chambers of commerce in that you will be networking with professionals in your industry, but not necessarily in your sector. The major benefits to becoming a member of a trade group or association is the industry related resources and educational opportunities that will become available to you. Determining what groups, associations, chambers of commerce etc. will require assessing your goals to point you in the right direction.
Defining your goals will help you make the most of your new membership. Is your goal to learn more about the latest industry happenings? Do you want to reach out to your local community? Are you looking to meet other professionals to collaborate with? Whatever your reason to join a group, association, chamber of commerce etc., there should always be a goal involved with it that will directly or indirectly help your business.
Integrating business networking into your marketing initiatives will prove to be a smart decision. You will increase your bottom line by gaining a presence in your community or region, staying educated in industry trends and earning more word-of-mouth recognition among your peers and future consumers.
Posted by Biz Central USA Marketing Team on April 16, 2009 under Small Biz and Entrepreneurship,Small Biz Marketing |
On Tuesday, I had the pleasure of attending the Hubspot “How to Use Social Media to Attract More Customers″ webinar. Thousands of social media gurus and newbies flocked together (maybe you were even one of them) to find out new tips and tricks on implementing social media into their company′s Client Relationship Management (CRM). What was most interesting to me, other than the webinar itself, was the outstanding viral effect of this webinar. From the planning stage through follow up, Hubspot set the groundwork for continuous promotion of their webinar through the use of Twitter.
From the second you hit the webinar′s landing page you were hit with an opportunity to “Tweet this webinar”, “Share on Facebook”, “Follow us on Twitter”, “Become a Fan” and “Subscribe to our Blog”. Once registered for the webinar, you were again hit with a larger “tweet it!” button, which when you clicked, it automatically opened up your Twitter home page and created a tweet for you!
The day of the webinar, as normal you were invited to listen in and follow the live webinar online, but you were also urged to communicate and ask questions on Twitter during the webinar. Well, that is exactly what thousands of people did! In fact, so many people participated in live discussions on Twitter that this webinar just about brought down the Twittersphere. Comments were 19 minutes behind due to high volume and “#hubspot” became the #1 trending topic on Twitter. Today when reviewing all of the comments made by Tweeps (the inclusive Twitter term for Peeps using Twitter) I became mentally exhausted after going through over 50 pages of tweets, and still counting. In addition to their massive exposure, Hubspot also engaged in the conversation on Twitter by fielding questions, posting updates on the Twitter status and tweeting a few “tid bits” along the way.
Was their webinar successful? I would say yes, definitely. Not only did they accomplish the task of finding people to attend their webinar, but they participated in proactive CRM and also got loads and loads of free marketing and PR for their company and the conversations are still going. If you were on Twitter that day, I think it may have been inevitable to not hear something about Hubspot, they just about brought down Twitter.
The moral of my story for small businesses is this: It is almost certain, that as a small or startup business you have a very minute amount of funds to work with for marketing and PR purposes, but using outlets like Twitter and Facebook are completely free! Take advantage of these social mediums to push your message out to the public. Embed your brand into the minds of the millions of Tweeps, Facebook groups and other social media stalkers-In this case a penny saved could turn into a penny earned!
