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A List Of The Things Small Business Owners Do When They Are In Their Own Way

Growing a successful small business is damned hard. What doesn’t make it any easier is business owners that continually make road blocks for themselves and sabotage their own business. What is even more frustrating is for someone like me who is extremely passionate about helping small businesses grow and I can’t do that because of their mindset.

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Social Media – It is Indeed a Revolution. Is Your Company Armed?

Yesterday I was invited to attend a social media training seminar (I was a student and not the teacher). It was a great experience! That’s the thing about social media, even though I am looked upon as an “expert” which by the way I DO NOT consider myself as, there is always something new to learn.

There is actually no possible way that ANYONE can be an expert in this arena. It is not possible to master something that grows so massively, so quickly. The only advantage I really have is I have opened myself up to it, I welcome the knowledge, and I study it almost daily. That certainly gives me a little leverage I guess over the average person.

What did impact me in this class though was as a student and not the teacher I was able to have a different perspective. This was a day long venture and after we are into about the sixth hour, I started to notice the looks on most of the faces. The look of being completely buried. My heart went out to these business owners. I know that feeling all too well.

The thing is now, business owners feel forced to learn the things that they have turned their backs on for the past two years. They now know they will not escape it. Their competitor is using it, they are using it to grow, market and brand their businesses. They are the last one on board. It’s sort of like running a race and being that very last person way behind and you don’t know how in the hell you are going to catch up to everyone else when you are just exhausted as it is.

Social media is a wonderful marketing opportunity for your business. You need to use it wisely and strategically. It helps if you develop a mindset that welcomes it and appreciates the opportunity that it brings. Not acknowledging it only creates a barrier between you and knowledge, knowledge you need to be competitive in your business. Use it well and be a leader in your community and in the market you represent.

Don’t be the last person getting on the bus.

Here is a great video that should get you pumped up and ready for the journey!

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Pinterest is Definitely a Traffic Builder and a Great Marketing Opportunity for Businesses!

I have been doing some research with Pinterest this week (this was research I actually got to enjoy!!!) and the verdict is in. There is no doubt that Pinterest definitely increases website traffic if done with a bit of a strategy. It is hard to report a really hard number just yet, but it will be high, over 30%.

What you have to consider though is, is it traffic you really want?

Conversion is a numbers game. So x amount of visitors over time produces the desired conversion outcome.

As my business partner Nik pointed out the traffic is only valuable if your subjects and the information are targeted, so there does need to be a good strategy in place. You do want to build a good audience and in the web marketing world content dictates who follows you.

If someone repins your stuff, you have a link. It’s actually a no-follow link by the way. ”Nofollow” provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page” or “Don’t follow this specific link.” However, it is STILL a link.  You need a lot of them but things can go viral so don’t discount it and people might actually bookmark your site, share your content, join you on Twitter and so on. As long as the content is good the rest will come.

In essence it is definitely time well-invested and fun taboot!

Another thing I need to mention is if you have a shiny-bauble business (which is what I call a retail business that sells jewelry, shoes, clothing or handbags anything that seduces women easily) than it is definitely a no-brainer for you and your conversion rate would no doubt be MUCH higher than mine. Let’s face it I am looking for people that want to grow their businesses to purchase from me so it’s a bit harder sell.

So retail businesses jump on the bus! You are definitely missing out on increased revenue if you don’t.

One more thing that I need to point out as well, be careful about who you get Pinterest advice from. There are a lot of Pinterest lovers who are trying to cash in on their new found gold mine of traffic and advising others without the appropriate education. They may know how to use Pinterest really well but they may not understand the complexity of how the Internet works or really know anything about how search engine optimization works. I am seeing a lot of wrong info being taught, it makes the hairs on my neck stand up, but what can you do? This is one of the very reasons I am jumping in myself as a web marketing professional and learning Pinterest.

So if I have to force myself to fantasize about dream vacations, delicious desserts and beautiful clothing I will do that for my followers!!! You mean that much to me!

Also, here is a wonderful infographic on Pinterest that I picked up from the great folks at Internet Marketing Inc. Enjoy! OH and if you are on Pinterest then come PIN with me! Click here to follow me, I would love to see your interests!

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Infographic – O’Bama’s Small Business Start Up Plan In Plain English

I found this great infographic on O’bama’s Start Up America Legislative Agenda and just HAD to share it. If you are not up on this it is an effort to “keep the entrepreneurial spirit” alive and well in the United States.

Among some of the things covered in this Agenda are tax breaks for small businesses and supporting new ways of funding startups such as “crowd-funding”.

 Obama’s words:

One year ago today, I called for an all hands on deck effort to ensure that America remains the best place on Earth to turn a great idea into a successful business. The private sector responded, with the Startup America Partnership launching new entrepreneurial networks all across the country. Today, we’re taking new steps that build on that progress, and I urge Congress to send me a common-sense bipartisan bill that does even more to expand access to capital and cut taxes for America’s entrepreneurs and small businesses.

 Small businesses are responsible for the majority of the jobs in this country; this is an effort on his part to help them succeed.

Genuine effort or part of the plot to get re-elected? You decide.

Check out this great infographic done by Intuit that explains the Agenda brilliantly.

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Build Your List! Build Your List! Build Your List!

As someone that works with small business owners a lot, I am on the front line of “what not to do“.

There are a few very common blunders that I see as a consensus, two of them are a very sensitive spot for me.

It seems that a TON of small business people spend ZERO time building their list! OR they have access to the information that can build the list but it is disorganized.

Your list is the most valuable asset of your business.

On demand you should know at eyeshot:

• Who your best customers are
• How much they have spent with you (you need to know what their presence MEANS to your bottom line) in the past
• Who your top prospects are

You should have a database that is organized in a way that suites your business model. You should have complete information on everyone on the list INCLUDING their email address.

One of the most powerful forms of marketing you can do in your business is email marketing – you literally can potentially feel the impact in your bottom line immediately! You cannot take advantage of this form of marketing if you do not have access to the appropriate information.

My second biggest pet peeve is spending way too much time doing things that do NOT have any impact on your bottom line.

Are you doing any of these things?

• Spending time doing busy work to avoid the real work just so you have a false sense of accomplishment?
• Taking 3 hour lunches because you feel like as “self employed person” you deserve that?
• Spending time at networking events that never bring you ANY sales?

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Use PinReach to Analyze the Influence of Pinterest

Like everyone else I am trying to find muddle my way through the jungle of Pinterest chatter to figure out how it fits into my business and into my client’s marketing strategies. I recently stumbled across PinReach which scores members that have high pin rates. It shares with you who has the highest reach, high trending members and so forth.

It is indeed genius! Using it gives you analytics on your engagement and influence levels.

Check out the graphic I took from their PinReach’s blog that gives you an idea of what it looks like:

Checkout PinReach today to measure your PinFluence!!

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Video is a Branding Opportunity

The marketing world is changing so rapidly! Its getting tougher and tougher for small businesses to stay on top of the best trends in marketing. The Internet is getting more and more crowded so its essential that you have a very strong search engine strategy. In addition as it gets harder and harder to stand out, branding your business is becoming even more crucial as well.

As we move into a world of advanced interaction video will definitely reign as a supreme marketing tool. Every marketing expert I follow agrees.

Now that almost every person in the world owns a smart phone or IPad, we all have the ability to make quick videos on our own instead of hiring a fancy videographer to do it for us. It’s important though just like with everything else we make it a strategic effort. Not only from a branding perspective, but how your videos fit into your marketing framework. What I mean by your marketing framework is your videos need to be consistent with your company’s brand and other marketing efforts.

I loved this article by Mashable, 6 Practices for Small Business YouTube Marketing.

Their tips were:

• Create a Schedule – as they point out putting yourself on a schedule will be a constant reminder to put out content and your followers will grow as you are providing fresh content on a regular basis.
• Keep it Short – Great advice!! Usually more than 2 minutes is the “kiss of death” remember for the most part humans have the attention span of ants, so keep it short.
• Promote – If you don’t promote your channel who is going to see it? You have to cross promote with your other social media platforms, use the appropriate keyword strategy when you are uploading your videos, and also be open to using tools like Google Ad Words.
• Have a Channel Aesthetic –  Take advantage of the branding opportunities in YouTube to incorporate your logo, colors and such. Remember its all about standing out!
• Don’t Ignore the Comments – You have to make sure that you acknowledge comments you get by followers otherwise other people will see that you are not responsive and they will not bother.
• Choose Your Feature Video Wisely – This is great advice! Let your follower be greeted by your best video! Maybe this one you will also incorporate some branding into. Remember this is the first impression.
• Make Playlist Related Content – This is also crucial! People are visiting your channel for a reason. If you sell insurance and they visit you for information on that and suddenly they see a video on fly-fishing that is really bad for your brand and can cause someone to loose interest.

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Marketing Challenge – Do Away With Print For Just a Few Months

I sold print media in a local business publication for almost 9 years and made a very good living doing it. (A VERY good living.)

That seems like an eternity ago, even though it was just 3 years. I sold ads for as much as $5000! An ad that was for a week long publication and had a readership of less than 7,000 people.

I live in a different type of market, many businesses here are still holding onto old ways. They are just uncertain yet about how to make the new marketing techniques work for them. Now I am NOT saying that print is completely dead (no hate mail please!!!), I am just saying there are MUCH cheaper ways to actually get some results from your marketing. Now they may require a little more work than just calling up the local newspaper and emailing them an ad, but I am talking about RESULTS here.

Let’s talk about Facebook ads for example. Did you know that you can deeply target your message, even down to an age and sex? So if you said you wanted females that were 28-44 years of age and lived within a certain zip code, you can do that! Can you do that with magazine ads for example? THEN when they click through to your website or Facebook page you can see the results – they are tangible.

Do you understand why print is making an exit? With tools like this around why would you put your money in print?

There are so many other tools that actually bring new customers to you door! Like maximizing your local marketing, beefing up your online brand, and publishing great content.

Another thing I would love for you to consider is newsletter (email) marketing. If you are a business that is placing print ads and do not have a regular newsletter going out to your customer base I encourage you to ramp that up and send it out for a few months instead of doing print. Take a look at those open rates, see who is engaging with you and then feel out potential sales opportunities! You cannot get this with print!!

Venture out! Put your toe in the water! It WILL bring you sales, I personally guarantee it!

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Inbound Intervention

Man cannot live by inbound marketing alone.

If you do not know this term, inbound marketing (as opposed to outbound marketing) is using all the new media tools such as blogging, search engine optimizing, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc etc.

Outbound marketing however is all the “out-dated” stuff like networking, actually picking up the phone, and other grassroots efforts of getting new clients.

Maybe the fact that I am a sales person from WAY back my opinion is a bit jaded but I will say that if I waited on all these things to just BRING business to me…..I would be in pretty bad shape.

I look at inbound marketing as a nice big enhancer, a launcher really of everything that I do. For example, if you are doing newsletter marketing which I am all about, you can’t expect people just to reach out to you. You have to see who is engaging with you and then reach out and contact them. You are still going to have to put some effort into it. Don’t just put out content all day and then expect people to throw themselves on your door step.

This sort of reminds me of those people who are under the impression they can think positive thoughts and will themselves to financial independence. It doesn’t happen that way folks!

Build a very strong brand that strands out! Even if you are smaller than your competitor there are ways to have an advantage through branding. Then its a matter of using all the great tools we now have access to just to dangle the carrot.

It’s up to you to reel them in!

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Small Business Owner Personalities – Which Are You?

I get the pleasure of talking to lots of different business owners, it’s always very interesting to get exposed to different personalities and points of view. When we are discussing creative branding ideas there is always a wide diversification of ideas based on the unique personality of the person I am talking with.

You have some people that are the type that learn quick and grab ahold of projects, they are hands on and want me to educate them every step of the way. Then you have the ones that say I don’t care how you do it, just do it, they don’t want to know how something ticks. I have some clients that if I even mention the phrase ” search engine optimization” they will run for the hills!!!

I have seen a trend though, it seems to me that the most successful people at building a business have a common denominator. That common ground is they WANT to know how things work, they want control over their business and they are anxious to learn about tools that make their business more profitable. They don’t consider talking about things like search engine marketing a waste of their time, it’s considered as an investment in their business.

I came across a great article this morning in Forbes, The Five Personalities of Innovators, Which One Are You? I found it extremely interesting and the character traits of the different personalities dead on target.

Take a read – which one are you?