Business News of the Week
Business Rewind
Updated April 5, 2014
Have predictions been met? Was the leading marketing and business advice useful?
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25 Essential Entrepreneur Resources Cut through the online clutter with our roundup of Web resources that every entrepreneur should know about. |
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Is Your Marketing Message Getting Muddled? When entrepreneurs formulate their marketing strategy, it is imperative to have a clear focal point while providing an authentic message. |
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8 Google Chrome Extensions to Boost Your Productivity Save yourself some keystrokes and distraction with these handy Chrome extensions. |
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6 Steps to Finding Your Twitter Audience Use this step-by-step guide to find and connect with the people who want your content most. |
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What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You? Take the quiz to see which sort of ‘trep you are. |
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25 Essential Entrepreneur Resources Cut through the online clutter with our roundup of Web resources that every entrepreneur should know about. |
|||
|
Is Your Marketing Message Getting Muddled? When entrepreneurs formulate their marketing strategy, it is imperative to have a clear focal point while providing an authentic message. |
|||
 |
8 Google Chrome Extensions to Boost Your Productivity Save yourself some keystrokes and distraction with these handy Chrome extensions. |
|||
|
6 Steps to Finding Your Twitter Audience Use this step-by-step guide to find and connect with the people who want your content most. |
|||
|
What Kind of Entrepreneur Are You? Take the quiz to see which sort of ‘trep you are. |
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A recent trend happening on Facebook right now is the debut of Facebook polls. As a small business owner this is a great opportunity to add this to your social media marketing arsenal should be using this new tool to reach out to your followers and see what their hot buttons are. You can then show them the value of the services your business specializes in and how it relates to the areas that are important to them.
What kind of questions should you ask? Try to refrain from asking yes or no questions. Instead, ask questions that users would actually answer and that pertain to their everyday lives. For example, if you are in the chiropractic business, you can have a poll such as:
My latest chiropractic experience was:
- Awful, I’m still in pain and I’m still paying for the bill
- Alright, but not great – I’m looking for a new chiropractor
- Average, I have no complaints but it doesn’t stand out in my mind
- Amazing, I have already booked my next appointment
- Other (explain)
The main component I look for at my chiropractor is:
- Friendly staff that care about my treatment
- Fast service, short wait times
- Clean environment, including the waiting room
- Complimentary services, including coffee, massage chairs and my choice of music
- All of the above
Once you have your poll out in the blogosphere for a while, you are then able to view the results. You will get a list of the participants who answered your poll question and ranking of all of the answers. This should help your business narrow down any issues your customers are currently having as well as find out what is important to potential customers.
Some quick tips:
- Put a hard deadline on your poll to increase traffic “Answer by the end of the week!”
- Make sure your poll question(s) relates to your business so that you can use the results to improve your business
- Don’t overload your Facebook followers with polls. One per week is enough.
There are few service professionals today who don’t need more clients. Here are four ways that can help you grow your business.
Automate and create systems.
Having a system in place from the start helps your clients to trust you more. From infants to seniors, human beings like to operate within the parameters of a routine. When your clients know what to expect from you, the consistency becomes a sense of security. According to Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, there are six major systems categories in just about every business:
- Financial systems
- Administrative systems
- Communication systems
- Sales systems
- Marketing systems
- Client support systems
If you don’t have a system in place for how you’re managing the above categories it’s time to put one into place. If you already have a system in place, make sure it’s written down even if you’re the only one who uses it. If you can’t explain what you’re doing to someone else then you really don’t know what you’re doing and your success will be difficult to repeat and your failure difficult to avoid.
Develop Consistent and measurable marketing
When service professionals need more clients, most throw their money into the marketing wishing well. Toss some at direct mail, a little more at making flyers, and even more at a radio ad, then they wait to see what happens. Sure you might get a few leads from one of those tactics, but how systematic is that? What good is your marketing if you can’t determine its success?
As we discussed above, create a system to grow your business. Yes, even for your marketing. When there is a system in place you can measure how successful a specific action was, and if it worked well, it’s repeatable, if not, you’re able to figure out what went wrong and fix it. Creating a consistent and measurable marketing system is key solution if you need more clients.
Give your website a makeover.
A need for more clients often trumps the need for urgency in making your website presentable, but let’s looks at the logic in that. If I’m in need of a service you offer, and I somehow stumble upon your website, it’s the first impression I’m going to have of your professionalism and quality of service. If your website is outdated and difficult to navigate, I may discredit you as a solution to my problem and look to one of your competitors.
When you need more clients, attending to your website is a necessity. If you don’t have a website, you’re invisible to most people searching to do business with you. Part of your consistent and measurable marketing system should consist of giving your website a makeover.
Commit to blogging.
A blog on your website is a necessity to grow your business, whether you need more clients or not. Every business can benefit from having a blog. Blogs give prospective clients a chance to get to know a little about you and determine if you can meet their needs. It also makes your site look better to the search engines and gives other websites who are looking to connect a place to link to when you have something to offer their target market.