Benefits of an Informative Business Card

Imagine for a moment that you have just returned home from a networking function. Within an hour and a half of “working the room,” you could have reasonably returned from the event with at least 30 new business cards. But in, let’s say a month or so, how will you distinguish between those companies, especially if you have cards from multiple organizations competing in the same industry?

The truth is–most small business owners get “carried away” by the design choices when creating a business card, forgetting that this tiny 2 x 3.5 inch card is, indeed, a marketing tool. Therefore, your business card should not only be attractive, it should also be informative. Following, we’ve put together a few benefits for taking time to create an informative business card.

  • Who Are You? Business cards provide a great way of telling potential customers what your business does and what you stand for.
  • What’s In It For Them? A well-crafted business card will go beyond telling you the business name and industry; it will delve answer the question most customers are asking themselves: “Why should I choose this company?” Your business card can eliminate the guesswork, explaining briefly what makes your company unique and what perks they’ll get by working with you.
  • Invite Them To Engage. Remember, people do business with other people. Therefore, if you’re active on social media, by all means invite a prospect to engage with your company. If you offer incentives such as coupons or special invitations for connecting socially, the business card is a great place to tell them that, too.
  • Give ‘Em Something To Remember You By. Your business card will often give a prospect their first impression of your company. It’s a perfect way to create a brief but powerful statement while leaving them wanting more, more, more.

In short, informative business cards separate you from the pack by answering the burning questions on your prospects mind, leaving them with a positive impression of your business, your mission and your message.

Connect with Your Customers

When interacting with clients online, over the phone, or in person it is important to ensure they feel connected to the business and its procedures. A customer feels connected when they are given personalized care and treated like a person instead of a number. Word of mouth drives business and when a client feels attached to company they are more likely to recommend your work to their friends and family which allows your business to grow and expand. It also helps to create repeat customers, if they enjoyed their first experience then they will most likely return for a second and third time. For most people even if they had difficulty with the product they will return if the service was excellent because they remembered how you made them feel and how you solved the issue for them.

Here are a few tips on how to ensure your client feels appreciated:

  • Answer questions and comments in a timely fashion and in the manner the client asks for. If they ask for an email, phone call, or letter respond in the manner of their choosing. If they do not specify respond in the same way they sent
  • Repeat what you believe the clients wishes are before making recommendations or closing transactions. This allows you to gain agreement with them as to what they would like or to correct any misunderstandings. Even better this shows your active listening skills and proves you are paying attention to them.
  • Allow your client the time to make a decision. If your office is busy at the time be sure to acknowledge them and as they peruse help others and frequently check back in with them to answer any questions they might have. Let them know your product or service is worth thinking about and ultimately will be the best decision.

Last, but not least, treat every client the way you would like to be treated. It is the golden rule for a reason, everyone appreciates a friendly, “hello” and “goodbye” and to know you see them as a person and not a dollar sign. It may be time for you to ask yourself how you would like to be treated if you walked into your shop.

5 Ways to Easily Increase Web Traffic

Acquiring views for your website can be compared to a rolling snowball. The more you have, the easier it is to gain. The Internet is inundated with hundreds of millions of sites, all competing for those precious page views. Here are five easy ways to build this momentum up and increase traffic to your website.

Use Aggregate Sites: The most popular aggregate sites are user generated with millions of readers. Posting a link to your site on Reddit or liking it on Stumbleupon drives new traffic to website with the potential to increase it dramatically.

Your Site to Search Engines: People most readily discover useful sites through popular search engines. However, these sites aren’t omniscient. Your site needs to be in their directories for people to search for it. It’s a quick process guaranteed to bring new views in.

Use Relevant Keywords: If you want to gain new readers, you need to incorporate relevant terms in your content. Pull ideas from current events and popular culture to give a fresh, valuable perspective. Be sure to talk about how the topic and your product relates. This allows people extra opportunities to stumble across your site.

Social Media: If you don’t have a social networking outlet for your site, you’re missing out on a number of possible readers. But, above all, it gives current readers an easy way to share your site with their friends. Word of mouth creates significant increases in page views.

Focus on Your Presentation: Gaining a consistent readership means that you have to consistently meet their needs. You don’t need to have novel thoughts and materials. Instead, focus on giving good information in ways they can appreciate and easily digest. If you give them good information, they’re bound to return.

Benefits of Personalized Marketing Campaigns

You’ve seen the benefits of personalized marketing campaigns in the tailored ads that frequent your sidebar on social media sites. A better example might be on sites such as Amazon, where book recommendations are made according to your recent purchases. These tailored ads have a much higher probability of catching your interest than a list of every product that’s available. But how can personalized marketing campaigns benefit the smaller business?

Mass mailed (or mass emailed) advertisements are widely ignored. We all get junk mail obviously sent to every household on the block. You might give it a cursory glance and if it happens to land in your mailbox at just the right time, when you happen to be looking for that exact product, it might actually work. Otherwise, those flyers and postcards are tossed in the garbage. The emails addressed to “Dear Customer” are quickly deleted.

The simple act of utilizing a person’s name can have a direct impact on how much attention they pay to your mailing. When you open an email that’s addressed to you, you automatically start to read the material with a feeling of familiarity. You know there are programs that can input that information into mass emails, but you still give the sender the benefit of the doubt until it starts reading like a sales pitch. The opposite happens when the email is either not addressed or addressed in a generic way – you start reading with an eye to delete it.

If you can personalize your marketing materials more, mentioning their company or some specific thing you offer that they would be interested in, you have a better chance of reaching that audience – long enough for them to at least register your name.

Why Should Direct Mail Campaigns be a Part of Your Marketing Strategy?

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Marketing your business does not necessarily mean focusing on online tools or mobile strategies. Although direct mail might seem old-fashioned, it is an effective way to reach your target audience. The benefits of direct mail campaigns make it worth considering when you are looking for ways to reach out and attract new customers to your business.

Limiting the Location

A key reason that direct mail campaigns are a useful way to reach your target audience is the limitation on the area. Local businesses can reach potential customers in the specific location rather than wasting advertisements on individuals who are not likely to visit the store. It limits the location so that only the target group is receiving the advertisement.

Reaching the Right Demographic

Not every individual is able to access the Internet or has an interest in using online tools. That is particularly true of older men and women, who may or may not enjoy using the Internet. Reaching a specific demographic is a key reason to consider using direct mail marketing. It ensures that the advertisement reaches the appropriate demographic audience.

Likelihood of Looking at the Ad

It is easy to ignore banners and advertisements online. Individuals simply do not look at them. Individuals are less likely to overlook direct mail because it is found in their mail box. Even if the products or services are not necessary at the time an individual sees the ad, they are still likely to look at it and remember it when they do need that product or service.

Direct mail campaigns may seem old-fashioned at first glance, but ultimately it can help you reach your target audience. By sending the advertisement through the mail, your target audience is more likely to look at and notice your advertisement.

4 Tips for Producing Effective Website Copy

Most businesses realize how important having a website and blog are to generating interest in their product and attracting new customers. They end up wasting a lot of time, effort and money producing a professionally designed site with lots of bells and whistles, but poorly written content. Here are some tips on how to product effective website copy:

1. Write customer focused content.

Many businesses make the fatal mistake of focusing all of their content on themselves. The language and wording they use reflects that. They talk about “us, we, ours, we can, we will”, instead of focusing on their readers. Don’t make that mistake. Write your web copy to appeal to your customer by using the words “you, yours, your, you can, you may” instead.

2. Write for your human readers first and search engines second.

While every business is probably now aware of the importance of search engine optimization for their visibility, it is best to write your content first and optimize afterward. It is difficult to write good content when your focus is all about the SEO. Yet, businesses continually try to do this. Spend your time and energy wisely by creating valuable content that will benefit your readers, and then add some mild optimization later. SEO is absolutely no replacement for valuable information.

3. Create content that speaks to your specific audience

If your audience is young executives, write your dialogue for that audience. If your main customers are seniors, make sure it will read well for grandparents. Make sure your content relates to your specific audience so that they will relate to you. Make sure your content, language and tone matches your target readers.

4. Don’t forget a call to action

Identify what you want your visitor to do when they have finished reading your content. Clearly lay out these options on each page, leaving nothing to chance or guesswork. Describe each desired action you want them to take, and explain how to accomplish it. Don’t assume your reader will be able to guess, or that your copy is so compelling that they will act on their own.

One thing businesses often lose sight of is that no matter how attractive their site is, nobody will stay on it long enough for it to be an effective marketing tool if it doesn’t have effective website copy to hold their interest.

What is SEO and How Can it Boost Your Business?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the means by which a company can improve its Google rank so that potential customers who do a search related to what the company has to offer will see the company website listed in the first page of Google’s search engine results.

Optimizing a site for Google is well worth the time and effort for two reasons. One reason is the simple fact that an optimized site will get a lot more traffic than a site that has not been optimized. The Search Engine Journal notes that 75% off all internet users never go past the first page of search engine results. What is more, up to 80% of all internet users do not pay any attention to Google advertisements at the top of any given search engine query.

Another reason why search engine optimization is so important is that it helps a company get in touch with people who are serious about purchasing company products and services. In fact, a top quality SEO job will ensure that a company ranks highly for keywords that are typed in by serious customers, not just those who want to find

out more about a particular subject.

More and more people are turning to the internet to finds good and services that they need. A site that has been properly optimized will get not only a lot of traffic but also make a lot of sales. This is why it is important for every single business to either hire someone who knows how to properly optimize a site for search engines or work with an SEO agency that can keep a site optimized on an ongoing basis.

Is Advertising in Newspapers Still Worth the Cost?

It used to be that if you wanted to make sure people were reading about your business, it was necessary to advertise in newspapers. Now, it’s important to ask the question: is it worth it? Newspapers are still selling advertising space, but it’s expensive. Is it worth the expense?

There are plenty of ways for you to advertise that are more effective than newspapers. Target audience has a lot to do with how you choose where you will advertise. For most people, the newspaper is not a place where they get a substantial amount of information any more. There are many people who no longer subscribe to the newspaper in their community simply because everything that they need is online.

With so many places to advertise, why advertise in the newspapers where it’s not as cost effective?

The reason that some people are still advertising in the newspapers is because they don’t know where else to advertise. If you don’t want to advertise online, direct mail is still an option for you. You simply create a campaign with a postcard, brochure, or catalog, get a hold of a mailing list, and advertise inside of everyone’s mailboxes.

Direct mail can be more affordable than advertising inside of a newspaper. You aren’t limited by space and you are able to get your advertising message into more hands simply because you are putting your message into a mailbox where everyone goes at least a few times a week.

Especially when you are in a new area, advertising to a large audience is important. When you are looking for a place to advertise that gives you mass appeal, it’s not as cost effective to advertise in newspapers as it once was. Try direct mail and you will see an increase in your business as a result.

5 Ways to Stand Out at Your Next Trade Show

Trade shows are meant for standing out amongst the competition. You need to make sure your booth has more people crowding around it – and that may be harder than it looks. If you go to any trade show, it’s the companies with the best looking booth that has the biggest crowds.

Here are 5 ways to make sure you stand out and get the crowds that you need to make sure your sales increase.

1. Signage. You have to have well-created signage to make sure you are seen. This means large signage at the top of your booth with your logo. As soon as people enter Cisco 642-436 the trade show facilities, they need to be able to spot where you are.

2. Banners. Banners along the sides of your booth will make it easier for people to know when they have spotted you. Just as you need far away signage, banners will act as your close signage.

3. Lights. You need lights, even if it’s in the middle of the day or in a well-lit conference hall. The lights will make it easier to attract people and ensure that people are able to read all of the information that you have available at the show.

4. Giveaways. All trade shows have booths that give out something. Some 642-436 people give out business cards, some people give out tootsie rolls, and others give out really cool things like pens, note pads, and even tote bags. These items should be printed with your logo so they know how

to get in touch with you when the trade show is over.

5. Printed materials. Some people don’t want to talk to a sales person at the tradeshow. They just want to come by to collect information. If you are going to stand out, you have to provide material about your product or service to give people when they leave.

How to Make Cross-Media Campaigns Cost-Effective

Cross-media campaigns can often be expensive. This is because you are creating individual campaigns for each type of media that you want to work with. You may be using telemarketers, print catalogs, a website, and much more to try and market your business. There are ways to save money when you create a cross-media campaign.

1. Establish your target audience

2. Market online and offline

3. Deliver your message

These are the only three things that you have to do in order to be successful with your marketing. It sounds simple, but it only gets complicated when you begin to over-complicate things.

You can use social media, which is a free tool, to help you market. For example, you can market that you are offering a free sample on Facebook. If someone actually wants a sample, they will message you and provide you with their mailing address. You not only get an address for your mailing list but you save money by sending samples to those who are interested instead of sending out a mass mailing.

When you use print media, you want to include all of your other marketing campaigns. Include your Twitter handle, your Facebook profile, and of course your website address. Want to make it easier for people to get to all of these places? You can create a QR code for each of these things as well – and the code itself doesn’t cost anything.

If you’re going to send something out in the mail and pay for both the printing and the mailing costs, then you might as well make it a cross-media campaign by including all of your online information. This way you are making sure people have an easy way to get in touch with you. Remember that some people like to hold a catalog but place their order online.

When you start to appeal to more people, your revenue will increase. You just have to create cost effective campaigns.