Start-Up Guide

Effective Networking: What you need

Getting ahead in business is of the utmost importance when you are trying to secure and grow your position within an industry, business or marketplace. Additionally, staying ahead of your counterparts, peers and competitors is just as important. Because of this effective networking tactics must be routinely employed to help ensure your continued success. Business networking is the methodology associated with meeting and forming relationships with people to expand the network of people you know for current, future and potential business or professional engagements, endeavors and opportunities.

The first step in business networking is to design business cards online and have a stash of business cards at the ready, making sure to always carry at least a few cards with you at all times. You must always be aware of who you are talking to, even if the conversation is about something very general. Providing your business card to people you meet out and about in daily life is a basic, primary and important method of staying connected and growing your networking base. You should willingly and readily hand out business cards to those you meet which may prove helpful or beneficial in business dealings down the road. One extra way to stay ahead is to always make sure you have plenty of cards on hand and ready to go; and always update business cards as necessary to reflect new contact information, social media sites and phone numbers or email addresses. .

Though business cards are the basis for continuing networking connections, you should make sure to utilize various other forms of networking to truly reach the potential audience you seek to further your career advancement. Social media, web sites, blogs, forum postings online and face to face meetings and events are all additional ways to help you effectively network both yourself and your abilities.

 

Christmas Cards For Your Customers: A Great Business Decision

In this increasingly competitive and uncertain economic environment, businesses everywhere are fighting for market share and the goodwill of their customers. The good news is that with the holiday season upon us, owners of customer-focused businesses everywhere can utilize one of the most time-honored and cost-effective means of thanking their customers--and drumming up future business in the process.

Sending company Christmas cards to one's customers takes only a little time and effort but has the potential to produce big results. After all, it's hard to resist the charm of a simple Christmas card. Rather than making holiday-season phone calls to your customers, which can put them off and more often than not take the tone of a sales call, Christmas greeting cards are a simple, unobtrusive way of saying thank you.

And they're effective, too! Here's an example: sending Christmas cards to your 50 best customers at a bulk rate of $1.50 per card plus $.44 shipping will cost you $1.94 per customer for a total of $97. Say your average customer spends $60 per order. If even ten of said customers--a 20% response rate--answer your Christmas greetings with an order, that's $600 in revenue and $503 in profit going straight to your bottom line. It's hard to replicate those kinds of margins in the course of everyday business.

As a way to show genuine emotion at a special time of year, company Christmas cards are hard to beat. The holidays are a time for your customers to gather with their families, reflect on what has happened over the course of the year gone by, and set goals for the following year. What better way to remind them that your company is a big family of its own than with Christmas cards? Including a group photo of staff and management and a personalized Christmas message to each of your customers is a great way to drive this point home. Be sure to inquire about their families--you'll be surprised how many will return the favor come next Christmas!

Christmas cards may not require much effort to prepare and mail, but it's important to send them out before it's too late. The best way to attract holiday business from your customers is to make sure they have their company Christmas cards in enough time to place orders before they start planning their own Christmas festivities. Start looking for your perfect card today!

How to Market a Start-up Business

Launching a start-up business is a labor intensive and stressful time for the business owner. One of the primary challenges that new businesses face is generating enough exposure to maintain profitability. At the same time, traditional marketing campaigns (such as television or print advertising) can be very costly. Instead many business owners are turning to the Internet to create a cost effective marketing campaign for their start-up. There are a variety of different techniques that can be used to generate interest in your business.

Website Development and SEO

In this day and age, many people rely on the internet to find businesses in their local area. Without a website, potential customers will only find your competitors. A common misconception is that developing a website is very costly; however, this is typically not true, as there are a variety of tools that will allow you to create a professional looking website at a very small cost. Additionally, consulting with a search engine optimization expert will help you design the website so that it returns as one of the top results when people search for your specific keywords on a search engine. 

Facebook Marketing

Social media websites like Facebook are extremely popular, generating hundreds of millions of page views every month. Facebook in particular offers a special option for business owners to create a Facebook Fan Page for their small business. This page is completely free and opens up a direct line of communication to your customers. By spreading your Fan Page amongst the community, you can create a loyal following. Consider offering special discounts or incentives to customers who "Like" your page, as this will allow your network to expand and create an opportunity for you to follow up with them again in the future.

Pay Per Click Marketing

Another technique that is often very successful for small business owners is utilizing pay per click marketing. Similar to search engine optimization, you will be able to target specific keywords and phrases that buyers tend to use when looking for businesses. You can target specific geographic regions, so only people in your local area will see the ad. A key benefit of this model is that you only pay an agreed upon rate every time somebody clicks on your link. This way, you are paying directly for performance instead of throwing money at a traditional medium of advertising that may or may not be effective.

 

Get Ready for the Holiday Season: Email Marketing

As the holiday season approaches, many companies and businesses look inward, looking for new to ways improve for the new year. For start up companies, the beginning of a new year can be a great way to reflect on existing practices, build new strategies, and leverage relationships with clients to build a consumer base.

For start ups looking to reach new clients, email can be an effective medium for building business. When creating an email marketing strategy, it’s important to approach each email in terms of potential value for a client. Modern spam filters will usually block messages containing only advertising, unless the message is solicited from consumers.

Build a goal for your marketing strategy that has measurable actions. For an email marketing plan to be successful, it’s important to maintain statistics on campaign effectiveness. Some email strategies may lead to lower response rates, while others may prove valuable for future use.

A great way to build a list of clients is by offering clients valuable information in exchange for their personal information. Any business can offer valuable information for a customer, ranging from an e-book for real estate agents to an online guide on effective parenting strategies.

In order for website visitors to view the information you have provided, they must provide a valid email address, name, and any other requested information. By providing you this information, it’s possible to create an email marketing list of clients with a viable interest in your products or services. Under the form requesting their personal information, have a pre-marked check box asking if it’s acceptable for the company to send them more information in the future. Many website visitors leave check mark boxes in their default setting, which allows you to send them permission-based email messages in the future.

When creating a marketing email, it’s important to concentrate on consumer value. A client or customer may unsubscribe from an email marketing list if he or she doesn’t find it helpful. Ideas for useful information include product reviews, ways to use a company’s services, and tips relevant to a consumer’s interest.

By integrating advertisements seamlessly with valuable consumer information, it’s possible for a start up company to provide value for clients while advertising their services. If an email subscriber finds true value in the information a company provides, he or she may refer others to follow a marketing list.

Tips For Recruiting The Perfect Employee

If you are looking for the perfect employee, you are going to have to launch the perfect job search. Recruiting can be a tricky thing, so you have to understand what you are looking for when hiring an employee that will be a good fit for your company.

Understand That The Perfect Employee Is Subjective

The perfect employee for a computer company isn't going to be the perfect employee for a law firm. Working for McDonald's requires less expertise than working at a corporate office in most cases. Your perfect match will have the skill set that will help the employee succeed in your office. 

What you should be looking for when it comes to your prefect employee is someone who works hard and has a good personality that can help persuade a customer to buy from your company.

Know Where To Look

You will never know where these employees are if you don't know where to look. Some good resources to do targeted searches include LinkedIn, job forums and sites like Monster where you can do keyword searches to find resumes that match what you are looking for. 

A good targeted search for employees that bring what you need to the table can eliminate some of your anxiety. Knowing that your employee brings what you need to the table will go a long way toward that person being your perfect employee. 

Pitfalls To Watch Out For

Every method of finding employees can be a stumbling block to growth as opposed to finding your next superstar. Employees lie about their resume, or just do really well in an interview room. An employee can have a stellar resume, but it could be inflated by accomplishments that don't mean much.

Someone who is referred to you might not be a great employee, but merely someone who was owed a favor by the person who mentioned your name. It is really easy to talk someone up if you have an agenda for doing so.

This is why it is so important to conduct a thorough job search that includes a background check, verifying references and various on the job testing.

Conducting Successful Twitter Parties

What originally began as a method of communicating short thoughts and comments has become a major social media force in the United States and the world. Twitter played a role in the 2008 Presidential Election, with candidates making use of it to contact and rally supporters. Social advocacy groups regularly use it to gather supporters, donations, and raise awareness. Twitter has the power to alter world events if utilized correctly. In spite of this, relatively few businesses have taken advantage of the resources offered by Twitter. A variety of techniques and practices can be employed by the social media savvy entrepreneur.

The most common way to build a customer base through Twitter is simply to engage current and potential customers by making the URL of your Twitter page well known. Adding it to your advertisements, products, and pamphlets help get the word out and attract your initial number of followers. This is the first step in the process.

Second, you engage your current followers while continuing the previous efforts to draw in new ones. You engage your followers by posting relevant, interesting, or fun information. It does not necessarily have to relate to your product or service, though you certainly can and should use Twitter for announcements. Beyond that, you should tweet interesting news stories, cool websites, or other socially relevant topics. The advantage of this is that followers are more likely to be engaged and "retweet" posts about something cool or interesting. The result? All of their followers see your name and may decide to follow as well. This can dramatically expand your customer base in this manner. 

Once you have reached a moderate level of Twitter activity and followers, you can host what are referred to as "Twitter Parties", where your followers can ask you questions and you respond in real time on your Twitter account. This serves as a cheap virtual news conference! If you are rolling out a new product or offering a special, a Twitter party can really promote your idea while educating people on it at the same time. The key to a successful party is plenty of exposure beforehand so people know to attend. This is, of course, contingent on your number of followers as well. The first two steps laid out are the most important part. As in most ventures, preparation and prior planning are crucial. The same principle applies to your Twitter party.

How To Have Successful Video Marketing

If you have been a part of the marketing industry for very long, it has probably become apparent that customers are more likely to purchase a product if they can actually see it with their own eyes. Although the internet offers wonderful ways to reach customers with online stores, photos, and descriptions, it is hard to match the effects of seeing a product in person. This is why video marketing has become a growing trend which is helping producers to sell their products over the internet like never before.

Below you will find several tips that will help you to improve online video marketing to promote your business and products.

Find Your Unique Idea
Based on your business or product, the ability to discover a unique video idea can be quite simple or rather difficult. As in all marketing campaigns, it is best to reach out for a target audience; general, generic marketing videos are not going to gain attention. If you make and sell candles from your home, don’t choose to have an hour long video showing your different assortment of candles; instead, you might decide to actually show viewers how a candle is made by taking them through the process step-by-step.

Production is Important
No matter how nice your product, if you don’t have good production, your video is not going to go very far. No matter the size of your business --whether you have a hundred employees working with you or are simply a small family-owned establishment-- your video deserves your best effort. Do not try to film a marketing video using your ten-year-old daughter’s Barbie doll recorder; instead, invest some money into a decent video recorder which will display a good image. Don’t simply settle for a marketing video which will look good beside a teenager’s YouTube production; instead, reach out for a professional looking production. If you have problems producing a movie or just don’t know where to start, you might consider taking some film classes or learning more about it online.

Selling Your Video to the Public
Once you have your unique, well-produced video filmed, it’s time to actually find a way to present it to the public. Since video marketing is often used to draw customers to your product or site, it makes very little sense to only display it on your website. If you want to get the greatest benefits out of your video marketing, consider posting your production on as many sites as possible. This is yet another benefit of having a unique video rather than one that looks like a generic advertisement. Although Youtube may seem over-used, it is an opportune spot to share your video with the public. Youtube videos can not only be found by going to their site, but also appear in search engine results.

By striving to advertise your product through quality video marketing, you can be assured that you will see a boost in website visitors and new customers.

10 Tips for a Startup

At a startup, the astmosphere is different. Things are moving fast. Here are 10 tips to apply:

Every employee is a potential channel through which the brand can be exposed – all employees should use their personal network

1. Personal social media – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
2. WOM

To be successful startup, all employees need to be on the same page

1. Especially support departments and business sides as they tend to have different perspectives
2. Company-wide meetings
3. All employees know all other co-workers names and most importantly their role
   1. This will allow for more effective and efficient conversations
   2. Employees will know who to communicate with if they want something done or they discover a problem

Act as an owner – all employees should question processes continually as if they were the owner of the company

1. Just because a process exists today, doesn’t mean it’s the optimal process
2. The startup environment encourages new ideas (even from interns) so aim for ideas to improve the company at a high level

Build meaningful relationships wherever you go

1. You never know how beneficial they will be in the long run

Taking breaks with coworkers can be important

1. Some of the best ideas come from a casual conversation between coworkers

Don’t let lack of data or uncertainty paralyze

1. Often the prior experience or data in an area doesn’t exist, and leaps of faith are necessary

 ALWAYS keep the customer in mind

1. Every project should relate back to the customer in some way
2. Start initiatives that have every employee thinking about the customer
   1. Have them work in customer care

Negotiation is key

1. Startups are low on resources by definition. Just because a price is given doesn’t mean that that’s the lowest they can offer. It may be easier to save the company money than many realize

Twitter is key, personally and professionally

1. Brand awareness
2. Creating a personal brand

Test everything – it’s a way to learn and it’s often data driven

Facebook: 750 Million Potential Customers Await

It all started in 2004 in a Harvard University Dorm room. It was this simple idea to connect students with other students at their schools with pictures and messages known as “wall posts”. Fast forward to 2011 and social media is legit everywhere. As of July 2011 Facebook has over 750 million users worldwide.

Long gone are the days of posting a few picture albums, writing on a few walls, and some innocent pokes here and there. Nope now its constant tagging, friending, mobile uploads, status updates, checking in- and all that’s just from your iPhone at lunch.

Facebook has made its way far beyond the college campus and users of all ages are logging in. While most people are logging in to connect with old friends, looks at friends photos, and just generally being nosey people don’t seem to realize what is also going on; advertising.

Facebook is actually a marketer’s dream. People sign up and provide them will literally anything they want to know. Age, sex, birthday, marital status, location, religion, where they went to high school, where they went to college, and even where they work. And that’s just the basics, then they give their interests, favorite movies, TV shows, and books.

Now all’s companies have to do is create short little ad banners to run on the side of the page and you they can select a specific group to target in your ads. Here’s the fun part. Is your favorite movie the Mighty Ducks? Do you ever see ads for Mighty Duck t-shirts? I know I do. No it isn’t a strange coincidence, you have been targeted. On Facebook you can zero in on their age, gender, location, or educational background. You can go even further and slice that group by language, sexual preference, and marital status. Then you can really get into their heads and target based on exact interest, movie, TV, and book matches. It’s really simple, pick an advertising package and pay per click or based on the number of impressions you receive. This is great because you only pay if it works and its easy to manage more than one. You can test different ads that target a whole range of people and see what works best for  your products.

Getting the most out of your blog content

If you own a blog and you plan on making money from that blog, there are some key tips you should know. Blogs can be very profitable, but only if you optimize it the right way. Here are some tips that can help you get the most out of your blog content.

Learn about SEO

SEO is more than just keywords and backlinks. If you want to get your blog noticed by the big search engines, you have to optimize every post, every page and every feature in your blog. For example, you may have some great content, but if your site isn't organized, there is no way a person is going to be able to easily navigate around your blog. They should know exactly where they must go within your site to find your content. Many people create multiple pages within their blog, or they use category functions and tag functions. Wordpress and Blogger both have these functions, making it easy for blog owners to categorize their articles. Learn as much as you can about SEO. The Internet is constantly changing and SEO is changing with it. What worked last year may not work this year.

Choose your keywords wisely

It may be easy, even tempting, to use only the popular keywords, but sometimes they may not be the best keywords for your blog. However, there are many cases when popular keywords are the best words for your blog. Instead of choosing your keywords based off of popularity, think about what you want your blog post to convey to your readers. Once you know that, then research keywords that are directly related to that idea; words that only have an average to little amount of competition. Use Google's keyword research tool to find these words.

Create unique content

People love to read original content. Think about it; would keep buying the same novels over and over? Similarly, your readers don't want to read the same thing over and over. If your blog posts sound like a poor replication of another writer's blog post, you won't retain readers. One tip is to not read any other post about your subject. Instead, write what you want to say in your own words, then read other posts that share the same idea for interesting information that you may want to include. Though you may have a few things similar -- usually statistics or facts -- your information will be unique because you used your own voice without reading other posts to influence your writing style. Use these tips while writing your blog posts. They will help you get the most out of your blog content.