How to Make a Big Impact with Small Marketing Budget

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If you have a small business, it does not mean that you have to do all your operations on a small scale. You do not need a huge budget to make a big impact if you plan well. Effective marketing is the one activity that will result to the prosperity of your business. Promotions can take up so much of your cash if you do not strategize well. However, there are strategies that can help you create a big impact even when working with a small budget. Social media is one of them.

How To Use The Social Media
The Internet is increasingly become a preferred advertisement medium and is gaining ground on TV and print media. There are millions of people who use various social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter daily. These create a perfect platform for any form of advertising. You can engage your customers one-on-one through social media at low costs.
You can use social media to find out what customers say about your brand before you kick off your marketing campaign. Many big companies have succeeded by first determining the image their brands portray before embarking on strengthening or adjusting it. Also, you can find out your customers’ needs and wants and then tailor your marketing activities to meet them.
Thereafter, you can start your campaign by joining the social networking sites. You need to research well first though. Find out the demographics of the site you want to join. Is the population large enough for your marketing efforts? You can create a Google Analytics account for the business to determine what is being said about you and your competitors.
Next, create at least three accounts in different social networking sites and link them. Linking will give you the following advantages:
• You will only have to update one account at a time and have the same message broadcast on the other accounts.
• It saves you time.
• It makes it easier to manage all the accounts.

Forming a Community
Having created the accounts, you should also form an online community where you will be communicating and interacting with the members. This is basically a fan or customer base and should be targeted to your prospective customers. Spend ample time in developing this fan base because a disgruntled community can lead to your down fall.
Here are some of the key things you should do to ensure you succeed in making a big impact with a small marketing budget through an online community:
• Know why you are building the community and what exactly you want to promote.
• Anticipate who will be using the social site to help you make informed decisions.
• Prepare for criticisms and strategize how to deal with them.
• Determine the ideas you will be sharing with the community beforehand then stay consistent and on point always.
If managed well, an online community presents a great marketing opportunity for your business. Besides, since you are the founder, the ideas you share should be of value always.

Online Video Promotion
When using social media to market, you need to s engage your audience or else you will lose them. Creativity is necessary to make a big impact with a small marketing budget. Audio and video promotions are very vital and cost-effective. Take advantage of these.
Create a high quality video or audio broadcast and then post it on your accounts and let the community share it. This will ensure that you have a marketing tool online for a very long time that will be shared by numerous people within and outside your community. If the video or audio broadcast is interesting, you will get a stream of new fans. However, you should first inform your audience that the broadcast is up.

Blog
Creating a blog or guest blog in one of your established websites is another way of creating a big impact at the lowest costs. Just with social networking accounts, you need to stay consistent with the flow of ideas and information you blog about. Choose a topic and stick to it to remain relevant.

Conclusion
Every business can make a big impact with a small marketing budget as long as the strategies employed are viable. All you have to do is define your niche and stay relevant with your social media marketing efforts.

Utilizing Surveys to Gather Information

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taking a survey
When it comes to gathering information surveys are the way to go. There are several different ways to perform surveys; phone, internet, written, and focus groups are great options. Some of these surveys focus on visiting a specific store, customer service, a product, brand, marketing strategy, demographic information, etc. One piece of advise we give to smaller companies who are preparing their marketing plan is to perform surveys before they finish their plan to help give them a greater understanding of what the market is looking for to guide them. With this huge array of survey options companies, governments, schools, and other entities can really gain a lot of worthwhile information.

One of the troubles with surveys is getting enough information from people. Lots of times people don’t want to participate in the surveys that would be most beneficial to those companies because they take up so much time. Sometimes they’ll take up to 20 or 30 minutes. This is why lots of retail stores keep surveys short and sweet at the checkout counter or else offer some sort of incentive for taking the survey. A lot of incentives will include $5 off your next shopping trip or being entered into a drawing for a $500 gift card, etc. Consumers use directories to find top paid survey companies where they can get perks for taking surveys. This can help get more people motivated to take your survey.

These incentives still don’t always get the companies the information that they need and so often the longer surveys are paid surveys. No incentives, just flat out paid. Some sources claim that you can make anywhere from $5 to $75 on paid surveys (the latter price being less likely of course) that average out to be about 20-30 minutes in length.

Phone surveys are quite normal for political campaigns as well as retail chains or companies that come to visit your home to sell you something. This is how they gather information for each of the areas. Often the person calling will inform you that they are calling to do a survey and could you spare so many minutes of your time. They will either offer an incentive or not. They also might ask if there is a better time for them to contact you. Sometimes companies call and claim to be performing a survey, but in fact end up trying to sell you something.

Internet surveys are a great way for customers to participate in incentive surveys. Often on the bottom of receipts there will be a link to a survey site where they can enter their code and redeem their incentive. A lot of times when visiting websites there will be customer satisfaction surveys. These surveys pop up randomly when people visit and are a great way for the company to know how to improve the layout of their website. The internet is also the easiest way to perform paid surveys. Paid surveys are two fold – you can complete traditional surveys or else you can participate in mystery shopping and complete a survey online, after the fact.

Written surveys are found in stores every once in while. These surveys are most often found in doctors offices, dentists offices, eye doctors offices, and other medical and research arenas. They are often in schools as well. This is because these professionals want to know what you feel on a personal level and for your own benefit and not so much on a more general scale when compared to other people. They often have more specific and personal questions than other entities.

Finally focus groups are a great way for companies to star a conversation about their concerns. Generally 6-8 people will come in, and get paid, to sit and chat about a specific topic of concern for the company. They might discuss a brand, product, or marketing strategy.

Surveys are incredibly important to the overall understanding of companies and how they choose to improve and move forward.

Making A Positive First Impression – In Person or Online

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“You only get one chance to make a first impression.”

No doubt you’ve heard this phrase at some point or another. Whether it was your parents giving you dating advice or a professor helping you prep for a job interview, this saying is both obvious (of course you only get one chance, it’s a first impression) and insightful. But with so many of our personal interactions happening via mobile phones, social networks and the internet, when does that first impression occur?

First Impressions via Phone

I know it may seem a little old fashion, but some people still pick up the phone and call. If you’re a small business owner, every time the phone rings you could be talking to a new client for the first time. Answer politely and speak clearly. Smile while you’re on the phone (it helps the inflection of your voice). If you commit to do something, make a reminder after the call and follow through. This interaction will most closely mimic a face-to-face meeting, so it will often be the easiest.

First Impressions via Social Media

Whether it’s television, commercials, billboards or direct mail, you can’t escape Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. This means that more and more of your future customers will be encountering you here. What are people saying on your Facebook wall? Are you responding to mentions on Twitter? How are your reviews on Yelp or Google Reviews? Monitoring and participating in these discussions will help you make a better first impression.

First Impressions via Your Website

Google is the first place most people look for information about pretty much everything. If they find you, the first place they’ll go is your website. Does your site look credible? How easily can people find what they’re looking for? Do you make the buying process quick and painless?

For example, consider this site that sells tungsten wedding bands. First, the site has a very simple layout with related content, no distractions and a clear call-to-action. Second, the navigation along the top of the site is clearly organized by gender and style. Lastly, the “Buy Now” button is very clearly placed on all product pages so you know the price and how to proceed.

Phone, social media and your website are all great opportunities to make a positive first impression. With a few simple tweaks you can improve these channels and improve your business.

Why Your Business Should Care About OSHA Training

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Guest Post by Steve of ClaimCompass.com

Accident and hazard issues are some of the most detrimental and frequently occurring problems in the workplace today. Often people are injured or killed because of simple errors in judgment and protocol. For instance, years ago a warehouse worker at a business in Utah had his leg run over by a 10,000 lb forklift. The reason this happened? He forgot to set the parking brake on the machine and it rolled forward after he got out.

Since 1970, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has operated on the basis of teaching good work habits to workers and supervisors throughout the United States. Their focus on keeping things clean, safe and orderly helps many jobs to remain free of serious hurt or deathly injury. Fines are imposed to encourage strongly the cooperation of all companies and employers.

Sadly, such a straightforward and simple guideline is not enough. Regardless of which rules and regulations are set on companies and individuals by OSHA, rules are not enough to ensure safety. Fines and inspections have only marginal affect on performance. The true way to get employees to be safe is to be safe as a manager and a company. Attitude reflects leadership on all levels.

Take for instance, a company like the one with the forklift episode. This company holds a safety meeting every month for an hour before work. The meeting covers topics from company fiscal standing to individual activities and a section on safety training. Once the meeting concludes, everyone goes out and works in the warehouse lifting steel and operating heavy machinery like cranes and forklifts. But there is a problem.

In this scenario, each employee can see the warehouse manager doing things preached against in the meetings such as speeding on forklifts, operating them in reckless fashion. In the yard, some see him lifting things in dangerous ways with body and machine. When he does repairs while in a man basket rigged to be on the forks of a lift, he doesn’t wear his harness.

Each of these observances speak volumes to the other workers. The loudest message of all is: safety doesn’t matter if I am in a hurry or I am having fun. A stern warning of “I am the boss” won’t do anything to correct it because the idea of being able to get away with it just trickles down the ladder. If the boss can do it, we can do it – if he doesn’t find out.

Safety requires training on all fronts. People need to be aware of potential hazards and possible solutions in crises. But nothing with substitute for the lack of caring that an absent minded or indifferent to rules boss will display. Employees will respond to the way they are treated. If they receive a fair shake and an honest example to follow, they will perform their labors carefully and methodically. If they are under the care of an unsafe supervisor, someone is going to get hurt.

Often, the mentality of management is to clean up a place right before an inspection and pass with flying colors. Yet, the point isn’t to look good for the inspectors – they come to make sure things are safe. If that is only a façade, the managers are simply hurting the company and its employees through lack of a real vision of safety. If safety doesn’t matter to the bosses, it won’t matter to the subordinates.

That is why there are the 30 hours training courses sponsored by OSHA. These courses instruct employers and supervisors on what a safe environment is and how to create it in their own companies. This is important in order to keep a workplace safe. By knowing what is safe and what is not, a truly caring employer will strive to avoid those pitfalls that will injure employees and tarnish reputations. These powerful courses will help create a vision of what should be done about safety in the minds of supervisors and managers. They will create a domino effect that travels throughout the work site and inspires people to work with that same mindset.

All supervisors and employers should take part in this training for the sake of the company, and the people who work there.

Does Your Company Need a Workplace Safety Plan?

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As part of the business planning process, depending on the type of business you may need a workplace safety plan. Here is an overview of the issue presented by www.osha30.com:

There are actually two issues here: (1) How to develop a workplace safety plan for your company, and (2) Why such a plan is important, if indeed it is.

Let us look at things backwards here for a moment; after all, if a company safety plan isn’t important, there’s not much reason to figure out how to develop it. So – how to measure value. There are 14,000 voices that would speak to its value if they could: they belong to the men and women who lost their lives in workplace-related accidents during 1970, the last year before OSHA. We can’t ask them – but we could ask their children. Or we could ask every boss who has had to train someone new to take the place of someone injured or dead, and we would find them speaking of the human toll, and of the costs of lost manpower and productivity as well.

Enough said: safety is important. Forty-plus years of building a safer workplace has brought to us a deeply-held conviction that safety is more than good; it is every worker’s right. So how do we make our workplaces safe?

To create a safer place to work, begin by looking for gaps – supervisors who don’t support safety standards, or a lack of funding for even simple safeguards – stairway handrails, lighted landings and corners, protective goggles or hardhats. Then gather the data: how many and what sort of accidents are happening where and how often, for example, or where is safety gear being consistently worn or not worn, and are there accident records that reflect such safety practices – that sort of thing. Begin to get management on board by showing them how they benefit from less lost time and injury. Start requesting safety classes. Increase awareness and foster a sense of personal responsibility among workers across the board, and you will begin to be able to redefine the culture in which you work. This is the single most important thing that can happen in creating a workplace safety plan.

The best safety plans at any workplace are going to focus on recognizing hazards and understanding the amount of risk they pose. Each worker should be looking for what can hurt him, what can hurt others, probability of an injury, how severe can the injury be. Where there are too many hazards and too much risk, alternatives must be found. People should never be too willing to accept risk; rather, they should be constantly looking for safer solutions.

Here is a proactive pathway, focused on the prevention of fatalities and serious injuries, which can be adapted to almost any situation and still remain fluid and workable:

1. Identify the hazard or group of hazards that need to be addressed. Bring all the stakeholders to the table and together fashion a workable plan of change. Plan on meeting as often as necessary to develop the plan fully.
2. Make sure the plan meets all of the State OSHA requirements.
3. Make equally sure that the plan meets all of the Company requirements, which may in many cases exceed OSHA standards.
4. Institute and oversee comprehensive training of all employees, taking particular care that each subgroup of workers understands this new safety plan in the context of his or her situation.
5. Now – finally – move to fully implement the plan. Bring it up as quickly or as slowly as needed.
6. Verify that the plan is actually working. Talk to people. Document issues that arise during the initial startup period.
7. Validate the program; in other words, react to issues that may arise, monitor the outcomes from the changes brought about by the new way of doing things, and look carefully for any unintended effects, good or bad. Take corrective action as needed.
8. If at some point you see that your plan is not working in whole or in part, cycle back through steps 4-8. Change what needs changing and try again, as many times as it takes. Be willing to listen to what is being said.

Do not forget to review your safety plans regularly: look for things like the impact made by new personnel, a change in area hazards or risks, new equipment, etc; stay aware. Remember, safe workplaces are no accident. Be sure to consider if you need a workplace safety plan in your business plan.

7 Tips to Keep Your Website Fresh

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Guest Post on behalf of StruckAxiom, a creative agency that builds brands. Learn more at http://struckaxiom.com/about.

In the early days of the internet it was common for businesses to have relatively static websites. Simply having a presence that told people what you did and how to get in touch with you was enough, and the online realms of commerce and community hadn’t merged yet.

Well, those days are over! Because technology and consumer behavior are shifting so rapidly now, businesses must deal with the challenge of keeping up. Successful websites now are those that are truly useful to the visitors. They offer a reason to keep coming back. If visitors to your website don’t see anything new after a few visits they may not return.

So how do you know if it’s time to update your site? That’s the easy part. Depending on what kind of business you do, if you haven’t made some changes within the last day to the last week, it’s time to update. The more difficult questions are how much should we update, and how? It could be as simple as adding a few keywords to some web copy, or as intensive as designing a new site from the ground up and integrating it with your database. I divide updates up into three categories: content, layout, and overhaul.

Content Updates

All websites should be updated at least weekly. This is fine for say, a local landscaping company. Many sites however, are updated several times an hour based on the type of relationship they’ve created with their customers. Updating more frequently means more work, but when done right it can really pay off. It may be tough to come up with new content, especially for small and medium sized local businesses, so here are a few suggestions:

• Promotions- Put up a printable coupon or a discount code, or just announce a sale that they can’t find out about anywhere else.
• Testimonials – A picture and experience from a real, live satisfied customer is a great thing to post. Try adding one a week. You can even link to third party sites that have positive reviews about your business.
• Informational articles – You’re probably an expert in your business and have valuable information to share. If you’re the local landscaping company, try posting a few how-to gardening articles. You can even offer to show your customers how to do it the next time you come by.

Layout Updates

If your site works but it’s just ugly, you need a layout update. This involves changing the general look and feel of your site. If your website is template-based you may be able to do this yourself, but you don’t want to make it look too different because you could confuse people. There needs to be some consistency between old and new. A professional graphic or web designer will know how to give your site the best look, even if they simply recommend an appropriate template for you.

Overhauls

At some point, if your business is successful, you will outgrow your first website. You may need to add eCommerce functions or scale up to handle more traffic, or move your hosting in house. Overhauls are heavy on the technical, content, and design updates and require significant resources to be done properly. They often coincide with complete rebranding events for the whole company. When you reach this point, you can’t afford for your site to look unprofessional, outdated, or cookie cutter.

Updating and SEO

Occasionally people worry that updating their sites will hurt their search engine positions, however when done right, updates have a positive effect on your Google rankings. The algorithms search engines use are designed to put the most useful sites at the top, so better content means better rankings. If you already enjoy a good ranking, you can hold onto it by ensuring that you maintain the proper keyword density in any new copy and using redirects that seamlessly pass visitors through your old page addresses to any new pages you have created.

Analytics Packages

Finally, I recommend that you start using a website analytics package. They track useful statistics about your site like how many visitors at what times and from what regions. For most small and medium sized businesses, Google Analytics is the best option because it’s free and provides most of the data you’ll need. Website analytics can be a powerful tool for understanding what’s working for you and what needs to be updated.

How to Overcome 3 Common Obstacles to Starting Your Own Business

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Guest Post by Michael Johnson who writes for www.smallbizio.com, a blog about small business tips and reviews.

Starting business is not for the faint of heart! You’re probably already aware of some of the obstacles you face. Here’s a look at 3 reasons NOT to start your own business—and how you can overcome them.

1. You Don’t Have Money to Start a Business

Any business you want to start will take some time before it earns enough income to support you full-time. Ideally, you should have enough money saved to cover about 6 months of personal expenses before you begin. This will give you some time to get your business established and generating the income you need. Starting with a service business that has low costs and quick initial revenue could be the answer to get started, even if you want to branch out into more of a product focused business.

You may be able to get a loan from a bank, or find investors who are willing to take a chance on your business. It would certainly be helpful to have a spouse or significant other who could earn enough to pay your bills while you are getting your business established. You could also consider starting your business on a part-time basis, or taking another part-time job until your own business is capable of providing a steady revenue stream.

2. You Can’t Get or Afford Health Insurance on Your Own

Health insurance is a key consideration for many people when selecting a job, and that concern only amplifies when starting a new business. One major illness or injury could even lead to financial disaster. If you are going to operate a business full time, it will be up to you to figure out how to get health insurance at a rate you can afford. With an illness or past medical history, getting health insurance on the open market can be very difficult.

Ideally, you have a spouse who can get health benefits on his or her group policy at work and cover you on their plan. This would provide you with a reasonable premium. In many cases you can join a professional organization or union that provides group health coverage to its self-employed members.

High-deductible plans provide more affordable premiums. You can also set up a tax-deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) that can help you pay your deductibles and other out-of-pocket medical costs.

3. You Have No Patience for Record Keeping Needed in a Business

You may be the type who just wants to go out there and DO IT and forget about the extra details. However, running a business takes some discipline in bookkeeping and record keeping in addition to all of the actual “work” you’ll be doing. At the very least, you’ll need to keep good records for tax purposes. Keep track of all your transactions, including earnings and expenses. Having a good record-keeping system will make it easier to sell your business should you want to do so in the future.

If you just can’t stand keeping records, you could look for software to help you manage your bookkeeping and record keeping tasks. You could also consider having a partner or friend with good organizational skills handle these tasks for you.

Is a Work-at-Home Business Right for You?

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The keys to starting a successful home-based business are research and personal reflection. You will want to research several home business opportunities and then reflect on which fits best with your lifestyle, schedule, family situation, current financial condition, skills, and of course your short and long term income goals.
When you begin researching work-at-home business ideas, think about your skills, personality, and preferences. If you’re going to stick with it and truly realize that extra income you’re looking for, you’ll want to make sure it’s something you like and that you’re good at.

Some businesses are tied directly to the hours you have in the day: your earnings will have a ceiling, restricting you to the hours you can work in the day and the amount you can bill per hour. Other opportunities have a magnifying effect—allowing you to build a business with the help of additional team members (not necessarily employees).
If you are thinking about starting your own home-based business, the available options can be overwhelming. Here’s a look at a few of the major business models you can consider:

1. Service: The most basic business model that relies on a particular skill you have and the hours you have to essentially sell your time to perform that skill. If you’re good with numbers and finances, you could consider doing a bookkeeping business, for example. The possibilities are endless and the right opportunity will depend on you.

2. Product: If you’d rather not trade your time for dollars, you can consider a product-based business. Often you can set these up online as an ecommerce business to keep the overhead low. Focus on products you understand and use so that you can anticipate the markets needs and how to target your sales.

3. Network Marketing: Low startup costs and small monthly investment. There is a wide range of products available to represent and sell. If you’re into healthy living, there are products such as MonaVie juice and doTERRA essential oils.

4. Franchise: Proven business model with training, but large up-front fees and ongoing royalties. Franchise fees vary greatly, so be sure to have a budget in mind and know what kinds of businesses you would be interested in. There are many choices with franchises, from Subway and Supercuts.

Even a home-based business requires careful planning for success, so be sure to check out our business plan template to make sure you get started on the right foot!

Tips for Updating Your Website

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This article is a guest post by Tyler Hansen who writes for www.trafficado.com, a web marketing and design agency:

Does it seem your site traffic has slowed to a crawl?  Or maybe readers have detoured completely to other sites?  Here are some key tips for updating your website and drawing more attention.

Revive the Text
Been a long time since you read your own content pages?  Once published, we tend to move on to other things.  Take another look at the material — is the terminology outdated?  Text too formal?  Too choppy?  Something as simple as re-wording your content is one of the basic tips for updating your website.

Change Fonts
Another of the tips for updating your website is to experiment with different fonts, especially in titles, headlines, and sub-headers.  Kind of like a new wardrobe — refreshes your pages.

Add Images
People are visual creatures.  One of the fundamental tips for updating your website is to add more photos, graphics, and illustrations.

Color
Elemental tips for updating your website include playing around a little with color.  Maybe change the shade of your background.  Perhaps the font ink.  Maybe the color used in your company name.  People are affected by different colors.  Hues can add spark, humor or gravity to the tone of your website.

Logo
Do you have a symbol that represents your company?  One of the simplest tips for updating your website is to create a iconic image that conveys your business.  Something that specifically signifies your company.

Add Pages and/or Content
Basic tips for updating your website include adding more pages or expanding the ones that exist.  Visitors come to your site for current information about your business.  If they see the same content time after time, they’ll lose interest.  Come up with one or more new pages, or add some new content to existing pages.  If your site has looked the same for quite awhile, maybe put an announcement on your home page to let them know about the new pages or which page(s) have updated content.

Blog
Adding this popular feature is another of the tips for updating your website.  Readers are interested in your own thoughts and comments.  What’s new at your company — promotions, products, events, reports, acquisitions, presentations?  The list goes on and on. No need to make it fancy or formal; just talk to your readers as if you’re sitting across the table with a cup of coffee.  This makes your readers feel more connected to you and your website.

Survey
People love to tell you what they think about issues.  One of the tips for updating your website is to pop in a survey periodically (or even on a regular basis) for readers’ feedback on an issue.  Be sure to give a deadline, then announce the results.

Forums
Another of the tips for updating your website is to let your readers talk to you and to each other.  Forums covering various categories allow those who visit your site to ask questions and get feedback, voice opinions and comments, lodge complaints, and provide suggestions.  Readers enjoy the support and assistance from others.

Testimonials
Nothing packs an impression like testimonials.  Employing them as one of the tips for updating your website can be very effective.  These gems of praise and thanks from clients/customers can send waves of assurance to prospective users of your products or services.

Offer a Store
One of the money-making tips for updating your website is to build a website store.  People who visit your site are already interested in the subject of your enterprise.  So why not offer them the opportunity to buy items related to your business?  You can sell your own products and/or sell items from other websites and companies as an affiliate (you get a commission on products ordered through your website!).

eBooks
This is another of the fun tips for updating your website.  You have expertise in your subject area.  Why not write a book that more thoroughly discusses or explains an aspect of the website content?  Maybe your website is about popular English castles to visit.  Perhaps write an eBook that tells of other interesting tourist attractions, accommodations, and eateries in the area of each castle so readers can plan more detailed trips.  Or perhaps an eBook giving more exhaustive backgrounds of each castle for history lovers.  Lots of options are open for any and all businesses!

Using just one of these tips for updating your website can make a difference in the number of visits.  Take the time to make some changes and watch the numbers grow!