Branding For Small Businesses Made Simple

There’s a lot of content out there that is written to help small business owners do their own marketing, but it’s often written by marketers who are adept in things like analytics, content marketing, and technical jargon. It may be written using terms you don’t understand and business processes you’re not familiar with, and then you’re left with no clue how to start marketing your brand.
If you own a small business, or are responsible for marketing one, you need to know how to be effective in your market without the hoity-toity language of marketing. You need marketing for beginners.

"Branding strategy doesn’t have to be complicated, nor do you have to hire an expensive expert to help."

Here, in a nutshell, are four simple things you can do right now to grow your brand:

1. Develop buyer personas
As a brand, you’re speaking to human beings who share your ideals, and who want or need your product or service. If you don’t know who you’re talking to, you’ll have trouble reaching your audience. Creating a buyer persona brings those individuals to life and helps you figure out how to market to them.
A buyer persona is simply a description of the person you’re trying to reach. You might have several. Give the persona a name. Write out the features of that person (“Sally has a master’s degree and likes buying organic food”) to illustrate her and get to know her. Then, when you do your marketing, keep that “person” in mind and address your messaging to her specifically.

2. Establish your tone of voice
How you communicate your marketing message is referred to as the tone of voice you use. It might be professional, casual, or even funny. The tone you use should resonate with your audience. For example, if you’re a B2B firm, you might do better using a more formal tone than a casual one peppered with teen-friendly acronyms. Just make sure to choose a tone that is consistent across all marketing channels.
If you’re outsourcing your content, your writers will need to use your brand’s voice as if it were second nature. Help them by creating a document with your brand guidelines, meeting with them, answering their questions, and giving them examples of the tone you are going for.

3. Know your brand’s values
Establishing what your brand stands for can help you immensely in your marketing because you can then communicate those values to your customers.
How can you do this? Jot down the things that are important to your company. For example, do you care about the environment? If you do, let people know about the choices you make that align with this value, like using green energy in your office, only buying recyclable or reusable office supplies, or volunteering to clean up your community.

4. Blog consistently
Blogs are hugely important to your marketing strategy: 81% of Americans trust the information they read in blogs. They can take you further than any ad campaign.
Write about things that matter to your customers: write about topics that they have questions about or that can enhance their lives in some way. And if you really don’t have time to blog, hire someone to do it for you.

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Credit: Forbes.com

Should You Hire A Virtual Assistant?

There comes a time in every successful startup company where you have to outsource work . As a business owner, you know that your time is valuable, and it should be spent doing the important things you excel at. Don’t get me wrong, every part of running a business is important, no matter how small- but some things are worth paying someone else to do. One of the first things that people outsource are small administrative duties, which a virtual assistant can do.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?
A virtual assistant by definition is usually a self-employed professional who carries out many different administrative jobs depending on each different client or project. They usually work for multiple people, but they just split their time up between each client. This is a better alternative to small business owners who are just starting out than hiring a full time administrative assistant.

What Do Virtual Assistants Do?
This is a very broad answer. Some virtual assistants can do many different things for you . The best way to find a good fit for you, is to determine what tasks you need to outsource, and go from there. Hiring a virtual assistant is a huge undertaking, and you can’t take it lightly. Once you know the tasks that you need to outsource, you can start searching for virtual assistants. Many of them specialize in a certain area, so it would be beneficial for you to find one that has specialties that could benefit your company.

Are Virtual Assistants Expensive?
As it is with anything in life, you get what you pay for. If you are looking to hire someone for dirt cheap, be expected to get the same quality of work. The best VA’s out there may charge $30 or more an hour, but they are there to make things easier for you, which is worth every penny if you ask me. It shouldn’t be hard for you to find a VA that fits in your budget, as long as you are not being a tight-wad. Just think about what you are saving from not having to hire on a full-time employee with benefits.

How Do You Pay A Virtual Assistant?
Most (if not all) virtual assistants charge by the hour. They should give you their rate up front, and you both can determine how many hours you expect them to work per week. There is a possibility that you don’t have an exact number of hours the tasks will take, so there are ways you can track their hours instead. Tracking hours is a way that you can tell how long the tasks are taking them, and decide if they are as efficient as you hoped they would be.
If you find yourself in the position where you feel like you need to bring someone else on board, congratulations! I know it feels stressful, and even scary, but this is huge for you. This means that your business is growing to the point where you can’t do it all on your own. That is something that many business owners only dream of. Hiring a virtual assistant is not as scary as it seems, in fact it can be fun! Find someone that you can get along with well, and that will compliment your skills with their own. If you find the right VA you will feel less stressed, confident, and hopeful about your future.

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Credit: Huffpost

10 Deadly Startup Mistakes to Avoid

Countless startups fail every year. But there are not countless reasons that they fail. “I’m talking to entrepreneurs three or four times a week, and they’re all coming to me with the exact same issues,” says Tarek Kamil, a serial entrepreneur with five launches under his belt (most recently, as founder and CEO of the communications platform Cerkl). “People are falling into the same traps over and over. If they could just avoid those common mistakes, the chances of their company being successful would significantly increase.”
He’s not the only one who thinks so. Mentors, VCs and serial entrepreneurs all say they routinely see entrepreneurs fall prey to a common set of mistakes. So what are they? You should know.

1. Not prepping your life
No one would show up to run the Boston Marathon without training first. The same should be true of startups. You need to warm up with some prelaunch training, from getting proper rest and nutrition to shoring up relationships. “You have to be rigorous about making sure you’re ready and that every area of your life is in check,” Kamil says. A startup will take a toll on your life, guaranteed.
If friends and family don’t understand what’s about to happen and are not supportive of your vision, they’ll cause personal misery, not to mention a major distraction from the business. Have a candid conversation to manage expectations. “Tell them, ‘I’m going to give this my attention --and while it doesn’t mean you’re not important to me, it may feel that way,’” Kamil says. “You need to make sure these areas are buckled up, because entrepreneurship will shine a light on whatever parts of your personal life are weak.”

2. Confusing a product with a business
In this age of apps, Atlanta-based serial entrepreneur and company strategist Eric Holtzclaw says wannabe ’treps don’t always know how to build upon their success. “A product solves an individual need,” he says, “but a real business has something customers will come back for again and again.”
Here’s how to make the distinction: Do you have potential revenue streams beyond the customer’s initial purchase of a product? That’s a key factor for prospective investors, who “want to see what the next thing is and want to make sure that there’s some longevity beyond what you’re offering today,” Holtzclaw says. “Are you going to license the technology to someone else? What does the business look like in three or five years? That’s a big concern from an investor perspective, and that will help you determine if you even have a business at all.”

3. Not paying for expertise
We say this with full respect: You’re not good at everything. You can’t be. And yet, every part of a business should be done expertly -- particularly the tricky stuff like taxes and legal issues. “Structuring not only the company but also potential investments in the wrong way can come back to haunt you,” says serial entrepreneur Greg Rau, COO of Ridago, a hardware engineering firm based in Oregon.
So where it really matters, don’t download some free online guide or think you can handle it yourself. Find an expert whose job is to know exactly what you need to do. The place Rau says entrepreneurs are particularly in need of an expert eye: “When drafting the terms you accept investment on,” he says, “if you don’t pay attention to things within the terms sheets, like liquidation preferences, that could hurt you on the future sale of the company to the point where the founders may end up with nothing.”

4. Ignoring data
“Magical thinking can kill any business,” says Lisa Stone, the San Francisco–based cofounder of the online community BlogHer. You can’t just believe you’ll succeed—you need to actually crunch some numbers and figure out if you will succeed. There has to be data that validates that your big idea is real, or at least provides a leading indicator that it could be. Once you collect that data, use it to create key performance indicators or milestones to show your idea or business is progressing.
Stone speaks from experience. In the early stages of BlogHer, she and her partners were told that women would never blog in large enough numbers to support an annual conference. But the data they collected from their first small test conference confirmed their belief that the plan would work. The event, organized in four months, sold out with more than 300 women showing up and netted the team $60,000, which was poured back into the company.

5. Scaling too quickly
Here’s a scary number: Seventy-four percent of high-growth internet startups fail because they scaled too fast, too soon. (That’s according to a report by Startup Genome.) “It happens a lot,” says Erik Rannala, cofounder and managing partner of Los Angeles–based Mucker Capital. “People raise money, think they’re flush with cash and then spend it on the wrong things. But by the time they realize that spending isn’t getting them anywhere, it’s often too late.”
What are they spending on? Oh, anything -- from marketing to hiring too many employees too quickly. But the basic problem is the same: They’re draining the budget on things that aren’t essential to expansion or determining whether their business is even viable. “When you start to spend money, you need to either have more or have a way to generate more,” Rannala says. “Because if you run out of money before you actually hit any real business milestones, you’re going to have a very hard time raising more.”

6. Clinging to the wrong idea
“You have to realize that sometimes you’re pushing up the wrong hill or you’re pushing into a brick wall you’re never going to break through,” Rannala says. This mistake is especially prevalent among first-time entrepreneurs and people entering an unfamiliar market -- folks who just fall in love with their original idea and can’t recognize how much it’s failing.
Don’t go on gut. Go on evidence. Evaluate how your product fits in the market. Maybe you run experiments on what tactics or product tweaks draw in customers the best. Or maybe you closely track how much it costs you to acquire each customer -- and if small tweaks make that cost go up or down. “For consumer internet companies, for example, there are five or six tried-and-true ways to acquire customers,” Rannala says, “and if you try them for six or 12 months and none of those tactics are working, that might be a sign that there’s something wrong.”

7. Failing to delegate
It’s perhaps the most classic problem in management: Rather than give up control and trust others to take the reins, you try to do everything yourself -- and fail. The instinct is understandable, of course. “Most good entrepreneurs are very strategic, so they don’t want to have to worry about whether the fine details are being accomplished,” Holtzclaw says.
So, what to do? Delegate, obviously. Start by drawing up processes, almost like a guidebook for how to do things the way they should be done. That way you’ll feel calmer, and your employees will have the direction they need. “If you don’t do that, you’ll hire too quickly because you’ll think, I’ve got to bring somebody in because I’m so overwhelmed,” he says. “Well, if you’re overwhelmed and no one can take anything off your plate, you’re never going to get out of that state. You have to delegate.”

8. Thinking money solves everything
Struggling entrepreneurs often think that if they can juuuuust raise another round of financing, their problems will be solved. But money doesn’t work like that. It can’t solve a fundamental issue with a business model, says Carter Cast, professor of entrepreneurship at Kellogg School of Management and venture partner at Chicago-based Pritzker Group Venture Capital.
“If your business model isn’t sound, throwing money at it is not going to work,” Cast says. “You have to fix the problem first, and then raise the money. Doing it the other way around will only get you in more trouble.”

9. Underestimating how long sales take
Let’s get this out of the way: Sales take time. Many startups even think they can close a big enterprise account in three to six months -- but in reality, a deal like that can take more than a year. And if your business plan doesn’t account for that, you’re going to be in trouble.
“They have to sell in to the c-suite, the line manager, the technology folks and the product manager. There are multiple levels of approval, and then there’s a scoping and discovery and implementation process,” Cast says. “I’ve seen many companies run out of money because they have been too aggressive in estimating their timelines.”

10. Fearing failure
“Fail fast” may be a popular catchphrase, but Kamil isn’t a fan of it. No matter how much entrepreneurs may glorify failure, there’s still that scary word: fail. And nobody wants to be the opposite of success. “It’s really the wrong term, because ‘failing’ means there’s no benefit, and most times that’s just not true,” he says.
Change the mindset. You didn’t fail --you ran an experiment that will improve your next business. “It’s learning,” Kamil says. “Although it hurts a little bit each time, now you’ve learned something, and you can apply that lesson to move forward and make your business better.”
So, were these still 10 types of startup failures? Sure, technically. But that just means they’re also 10 ways to learn.

To avoid such mistakes, click here

Credits: entrepreneur.com

Truths About Emails You Can Use to Cut Through the Clutter

The average user receives 147 emails a day

. People spend about 2.5 hours checking their email

. In less than three seconds 80% of emails are deleted

. The average person writes about 40 emails a day

. There are 12 messages we receive that will take more than 90 minutes of our day

There’s a lot of talk about email and its effectiveness. Some think the medium has lost all ability to communicate a message while others still rely heavily on its ability to send information to a targeted group. If you’re with us in the second group and still believe in email’s ability to communicate your message, the infographic below highlights ways you can be sure your email remains in the effective bucket.

For starters, the text in your email should NOT contain the following words: confirm, join, assistance, speaker, press, social or invite. Some words to include in your subject line to get a better response or to get the emails opened are: apply, opportunity, demo, connect, payments, conference and cancellation. Email users are also more likely to read your email between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. or around noon while most people are on their lunch.
Once you get someone to actually open your message, be sure the call to action is located on top. For example, if you’d like someone to click on a link put that link on the top line. You should also make your email message concise. Bullet points help get your point across and make it easier for the reader to scan your email message.
What tactics do you use to get your emails read or responded to? Are you still using email to reach your targets? Tell us about your experiences in the ‘Comments.’

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Credit:  Media space solutions

Common Branding Mistakes That Will Kill Your Small Business

What is branding exactly? It’s the development of a public persona, one that causes an instant emotional connection within consumers. When you think of great branding, what comes to mind? Nike’s swoosh? Coca Cola’s red can and white lettering? Or maybe McDonald’s golden arches?

As a small business owner, you’ve probably dreamed of reaching such branding success. You’ve also most likely become instantly overwhelmed at the mere idea of taking on what can be an expensive and demanding initiative.
The good news is, effective branding is much easier and more cost-effective than you might think, provided you avoid the following 5 common mistakes.

Being Shortsighted
You most likely know that having a strong brand is highly advantageous from a customer-relationship perspective. After all, the stronger your brand the more top of mind you become. For instance, when you think of buying shoes online, you immediately think of Zappos.
But…
Did you know that branding is also valuable for SEO marketing? It’s no secret that Google prioritizes branded listings in its organic search results. They do this because branded websites are more likely to get the clicks. More clicks mean happier search engine users. Hence, don’t be shortsighted. Undertaking a branding initiative could lead to both awareness benefits and a boost in website traffic.

Failing to Implement Branding Guidelines
Your branding efforts will be sabotaged by a lack of cohesiveness. This cohesiveness can only be reached by implementing branding guidelines. Doing so will allow your brand to be instantly recognized no matter which marketing channel you use. People recognize Coca Cola in their TV ads as well as their print ads and social media campaigns.
What should your guidelines include?
• Logo
• Brand colors
• Taglines
• Fonts and typography
• The “voice” used in your branded materials
• Imagery
• Mascots or spokespeople
While this isn’t an exhaustive list of guidelines, these points are essential to getting you started.

Not Keeping it Simple
Small businesses can learn a lot from Coca Cola when it comes to keeping their brand image simple. Take a look at how their logo has changed – or not changed – over the years. While the fonts have varied a bit since the soft drink giant launched in 1887, the logo in general has had the same look and feel over the last 127 years. Also worth mentioning is that look happens to be very clean and simple.
It may be tempting to “go all out” and add more variables when initiating your branding process. But, a logo with five colors and four different graphic elements will confuse your audience and overcomplicate things. Take a note from Coca Cola and keep things simple.

Being Vague
I already mentioned the importance of keeping your brand image and logo clean and simple. But don’t confuse this will dull and vague. Your brand’s elements must reveal something about your company and its value proposition. Catchphrases like “Best-selling” “award-winning” or “new and improved” have been so overused, they no longer hold any meaning with consumers.
Focus on creating clear language, logos and imagery that highlight your company’s value proposition.

Not Monitoring Your Brand’s Usage
Developing and launching your small business’s brand is only half of the branding equation. The other half is making sure you’re monitoring how others are using your brand image on your behalf. If you let this task slide, you risk publishing partners using your logo but with the wrong colors, or a review website using the wrong URL link. Or, worse, a competitor using a tagline that sounds strikingly similar.
While branding takes thought and comprehensive planning, it doesn’t need to be overly complicated. As long as you avoid these 5 common mistakes, you should be able to develop a brand that is instantly recognizable and connects with your target audience.

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Credit: Media Space solutions

5 Must-Haves In A Business URL

When starting a new business, its name lies at the core of your potential success. Not merely because this is the foundation on which your brand is built and what will help to lure consumers — what makes a good business name so critical in today’s day and age is snagging a suitable domain.

Selecting a name for your business and grabbing the right domain are one in the same in the digital age. You need to be sure that the URL you land is one that will help make your brand, not break it.

Your business domain is a key element of your website because it serves several functions:

It is your first impression – The domain is the first thing visitors will see; assuming you have picked one that they can find. More on this later.It defines your brand – The right domain name can help support or diminish brand recognition.It impacts SEO – If your domain leverages the right keywords, it can have a positive impact on your SEO for several different reasons.

If your business is in the market for a new URL, or you are in the pre-launch phases of a new brand, here are five must-have domain elements that will help your business prosper.

1. Consider Keywords

Back in 2012, Matt Cutts announced via Twitter that Google would begin dropping low-quality exact match domains (EMD) in the SERPs. This has led many to believe that EMDs are bad for business, though this simply isn’t true.

Google only demoted “low-quality” EMDs, as it did with everything that the Panda algorithm deemed subpar.

Assuming your site is top notch, you have nothing to fear in the realm of EMDs; in fact, you’ll likely see positive SEO results as a byproduct.

Let’s look at a case study. Steve Tackett just purchased www.usedcarsforsale.com for a whopping $340,000; the single largest sale of an automotive-related domain since 2008.

Steve’s intent for buying such a pricey URL is to help disrupt the online automotive industry that is currently dominated by sites like Autotrader.com, Cars.com, and others that have garnered a questionable reputation in the eyes of many consumers.

Because this site is likely to drive a significant amount of traffic based on its keyword value alone, it is sure to be a power player in the SERPs.

When it comes to finding fruitful keywords in your industry, you can leverage tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or Keywordtool.io; just be sure to stay away from keyword-stuffed domains.

2. Take Spelling Seriously

Truthfully, you need to consider more than just your domain’s spelling. You also need to take into consideration the length and pronunciation as well. If one of these elements is out of balance, it is likely to equate to a serious decrease in potential traffic.

When considering a domain, try to make sure it’s something that can be easily said in conversation, is easily remembered, and is spelled like it sounds.

Adhering to these guidelines helps to ensure that your domain is memorable and easily searchable. If it’s too long, people will forget it. If it’s spelled strangely, consumers will have a hard time finding you. If shoppers can’t pronounce your URL, they’ll probably just go somewhere else.

When purchasing a domain, make sure it fits within this framework; if it doesn’t, keep looking.

3. Nix Numbers and Hyphens

Keeping in mind the last section, numbers and hyphens can be a business death sentence for clear reasons. Both domain elements make your URL more difficult to spell and pronounce in conversation; this is likely to lead to far less business than you would hope for.

There isn’t much need to go further into detail here. The lesson to take from this is to avoid URL-related numbers and hyphens like the plague.

4. Do a .Com Address

In recent years, more creative and unusual top-level domains (.me, .camp, etc.) have come into existence.

While there is certainly an argument to be made for creativity and memorability, if you are serious about building a long-term brand online, you’ll likely want to stay within the .com arena.

These URLs are far more difficult to procure as they may be more expensive and hard to come by, but .com is by far the most trusted top-level domain by consumers. In fact, many are still unaware that alternative website suffixes like .me are in use, making potential visitors weary and more likely to visit another site.

Speaking of building a long-term brand online…

5. Think About the Future

When purchasing a domain for your business, consider it as seriously as you would a marriage. This will be your brand’s defining factor online for years to come, if not the entirety of its existence.

If you opt to change your URL at some point in the future, your traffic will temporarily be halted, and your SEO ranking will be seriously damaged. So don’t commit to a URL you suspect is temporary; go all-in or there will be repercussions.

Think about where your business is now and what it might be in the future. Do you plan to maybe expand your offerings or services one day? Then take that into account.

Don’t pigeonhole yourself to a certain niche if you feel that you have the potential to grow your business into other areas.

Make sure that your business URL reflects who you are now as a brand, and who you might become.

Your businesses domain name is its identity; it’s how people find you online. Be sure to carefully consider the elements above when shopping for a URL to attach to your brand. If you fail to follow these guidelines, it could end up costing you a lot more than a few visitors.

Have you had any domain troubles in the past? Do you think .com addresses are still most trusted by consumers or are other domains gaining credence?

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Credit: sitepronews.com

10 Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Shoestring Budget

When budgets are tight, marketing might be the first expense you look to cut.
Let me stop you right there.

While traditional advertising methods are costly and hard to measure, small businesses have never had greater access to cost-effective, trackable marketing tools.
But with so many digital tools available, how do you know where to start?

Email marketing is the tried and true digital marketing channel.

Email and social media marketing are just the start. Here are ten marketing strategies that can help you market your small business on a shoestring budget.

1. Craft an elevator pitch

You should be marketing all the time — wherever you are. Therefore, you need a compelling elevator pitch.
Research shows the average attention span of an adult is about six to eight seconds. That’s all the time you have to grab someone’s attention.
If you successfully engage them, then you only have a little over a minute to really sell them on your product or service. Invest the time to craft a killer elevator pitch. The return on your investment will pay huge dividends in terms of creating business opportunities.

2. Leverage your community
You don’t have to think big when it comes to your marketing efforts. Think locally. What’s going on in your community?
Sponsor a Little League team or a 5k charity walk/run. Print bookmarks and leave them at the local library. Get to know your ideal customer and think about how and where they spend their time.
Then search for opportunities to get in front of your customer with your marketing message .

3. Collaborate
Put together a group of synergistic, non-competitive businesses in your area and agree to cross-promote.
You can use coupons , fliers, reciprocal website links, bundled promotions or social media platforms. By collaborating with each other, you can expand your customer base because you’ll be reaching new people.

4. Network
I’m a huge fan of networking. I don’t think there is any better way to build a business than to get out there, shake some hands, and get to know people.
Networking requires a time commitment and it doesn’t provide instant gratification, but a strong network is one of the greatest assets any business person can have.

5. Give a speech
A lot of people hate public speaking. However, there are many organizations looking for qualified, subject-matter experts who can present to their groups.
Take a deep breath and volunteer. You don’t have to be a pro as long as the information you share is helpful to the audience. And the upside — the more you do it the easier it gets. Plus, it positions you as a credible authority in your field.

6. Create buzz
I started my corporate career in the field of public relations and the business has changed significantly because of technology.
Today, a small business owner can accomplish a lot without hiring a professional firm. Subscribe to Help a Reporter Out . You can respond to reporters’ queries that are looking for story ideas and resources. Some are small media opportunities, but others are major media outlets that use this service too.

7. Ask for referrals
Don’t be shy about asking for customer referrals. The majority of people say they are willing to provide a referral if asked, but very few take the initiative to do it on their own.
Referrals make it easier to get in the door with new customers. If you aren’t asking for them, you are missing opportunities.

8. Build relationships
It is a lot less expensive to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. That’s why establishing strong relationships with your customer base is crucial. One of the ways you can do that is by keeping in touch with people through email marketing .
Ask customers for their email address when they visit your store or website. Then, make your communications informative, helpful and professional — something your customers will look forward to receiving.

9. Offer coupons
Coupons are a good way for many businesses to attract new customers. Research shows that people will go out of their way to use a coupon, proving that this method is successful in expanding your customer base.
Coupons can also generate return visits. For example, if you give a customer a coupon for a discount to use on future business, there’s a high probability they’ll be back.

10. Give it away
If someone has the opportunity to experience your product or service, chances are they will want to purchase more.
Don’t be afraid to give someone a free trial or a sample. In today’s economy, people are more comfortable purchasing something they have been able to experience first.

These ten, inexpensive marketing strategies will help you engage customers, build relationships, and ultimately keep your brand top-of-mind. It’s not always about the money you have to spend on marketing, it’s about the time and effort you put into it and above all, the relevance it has for your customers.

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Credit:  Constant Contact