It’s Never too Early to Start Planning Your Holiday Social Media Strategy

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The kids are back in school and Halloween is still weeks away but if you own a business that relies on holiday sales, it’s time to start thinking about the most wonderful time of the year. Otherwise it might not be wonderful at all.

Many small businesses wonder how they can stand out among the many extravagant marketing campaigns that are rolled out ahead of the holiday shopping season. Thankfully, social media allows these businesses to garner the attention of their customers and prospects without breaking the bank.

If you have not started putting together your holiday social media strategy, now is the time. Here are some things to keep in mind as you build this strategy:

  • Less is more. When you try to post on every platform out there, you will find yourself unable to do any of them right. Instead, focus on a few social media platforms that you know your customers frequent and concentrate your efforts on the visitors to these sites.
  • Focus on followers. Offer special deals that are only available to your social media followers. This encourages followers to share your deals with friends and family. This creates a buzz around your social media sites that will allow you to gain followers and get your brand noticed.
  • Ship for free. With people spending so much money over the holidays, they are always on the lookout for ways to save. When surveyed, almost 50 percent of consumers said that free shipping plays a significant factor in whether or not they make a purchase. Consider offering free shipping codes to social media followers or use social media to advertise free shipping offers.
  • Get personal. Facebook allows you to use its targeting features to reach a specific demographic. You can target your social media messages to reflect a particular age group or geographical area, for example.

Of course, no matter how effective your social media strategy is at garnering attention for your brand, none of it will matter if you don’t back it up with superior customer service. The holidays can be an especially hectic and stressful time of year for consumers. When you are there for them—responding quickly when they have a problem or question—they won’t soon forget. The result? Happy holiday shoppers that remain loyal long after the season is over.

Why Persistence is the Key to Selling Success

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Identifying the target audience for a particular product or service your company is selling takes a lot of time and money. After all, you want to make sure that you are marketing to exactly the type of customers who are most likely to buy what you have to sell.

If, after going to all this work, you approach a prospect through email, direct mail or any other marketing technique and they fail to respond, you just spent a lot of time and money for nothing. Or did you?

We’ve all heard the adage, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” In the case of marketing your business, adhering to this adage is essential to success. Here are three important follow-up tactics to employ so that never miss out on a sale because you gave up on a prospect too soon:

  1. Repeat yourself. If you made an offer that your prospect isn’t responding to, restate the same offer but in a new way. In other words, emphasize different selling points. Many prospects may be on the fence about whether or not to buy. Highlighting some additional benefits can tip the scale in your favor.
  2. Create a sense of urgency. If you didn’t get the reaction you had hoped for the first time around, consider offering a bonus offer if a prospect acts in the next 24 hours, for example. Free shipping is another offer that buyers often respond to. You also can try offering the product or service at a discount for orders placed within a certain time frame.
  3. Present another option. Maybe the reason your prospect is not biting is because your product isn’t exactly what they are looking for. As a salesperson, your job isn’t to sell the product you want to sell, it’s to sell the product that your customer wants or needs. If a prospect has made it clear that they aren’t buying what you are initially selling, it’s time to give them another option.

While it can seem fruitless at times, continuing to follow up with prospects will in many cases be rewarded with a sale. At the very least, prospects will appreciate your persistence and likely remember you in the future when they are ready to make a purchase.

Sales Staff Burnt Out? Creative and Unusual Ways to Motivate Employees

Sales Staff Burnt Out? Creative and Unusual Ways to Motivate Employees

With the dog days of summer upon us, it can be difficult to motivate employees who are feeling less than fired up. That’s a big problem because when employees are feeling sluggish, profits and sales goals often grind to a halt.
If your sales team seems to be dragging a bit, it may be time to implement some creative ways to motivate them. Before you ask yourself how much this motivation will cost you, relax. Some of the most effective motivational tactics don’t involve spending a lot of money or paying out huge bonuses.

That said, money is always a great motivator. The key is to use it in a way that does more than just reward the top performer. For example, if outbound sales calls are necessary to your company’s success, try rewarding people for the number of times they are rejected. This motivates everyone to make as many calls as possible—the name of the game when it comes to cold-calling—but rewards them for trying!

Here are some other, decidedly untraditional, ways to motivate employees and make the workplace a little more exciting:

  1. If there aren’t clients visiting, how about ditching the suit and tie (or khakis and polo) and instituting unusual dress down days. Favorite sports team day. Ugliest t-shirt day. Pajama day. You get the idea.
  2. Cater a special breakfast or lunch to the office or consider bringing treats regularly to help raise morale. How about renting a smoothie machine for the afternoon?
  3. Sometimes the best motivation for an employee is to know they are appreciated. Do you let employees know you value them? If you don’t, it’s time to start. You also can accomplish this as a group, as well. Gather everyone in the office one Friday morning and tell them they all get the afternoon off as a way to say thank you.
  4. Consider adding a nap room. It may sound odd, but companies of all sizes are converting a small office into a nap room. A quick 15-minute snooze can refresh employees and help them be more productive all day long.
  5. Welcome Fido or Fluffy to the office. Maybe letting employees bring their pet to the office every day is not feasible (although some companies do just that), but a special pet day can help boost morale and promote camaraderie.

Of course, these ideas may be a little too extreme for some businesses but they do drive home the need to make the office somewhere your employees want to go instead of a place they have to go. And remember, happy employees are productive employees.

Why Failing to Take Advantage of Technology is Costing Your Small Business Big Money

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If you are a small business, you know that you need to keep up with technology and incorporate it into all that you do. Failing to do so is a sure way to lose money.

But technology can be overwhelming for many people. Are you a small business owner who has no idea how to move their business online? Does the prospect of crafting a social media strategy seem completely unnerving? Does technology in general make you feel completely inept? Don’t worry—you are not alone.

No matter why you have been unwilling or unable to embrace technology, the fact remains that if you don’t embrace it, you are missing out on customers and ultimately, profits. Knowing you need to utilize technology doesn’t make it any easier to do so, however.

Technology can be downright intimidating, especially for someone with no background in IT. And before you decide how to implement technology, you need to know what type of technology to implement. Here are the first steps to take in your journey toward moving your business into the digital age:

  1. Go Mobile. You must have a responsive website. In other words, your website must work well on all types of mobile devices, from tablets to smartphones.
  2. Get Social. Today, engaging with your customers online is as important as engaging with them at the cash register or on the phone. You don’t need to be on every social media site but you do need to be on at least a few of the major ones.
  3. Embrace Big Data. You may be a small business but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to take advantage of big data. If you are not collecting information about your customers and prospects by tracking their purchases and online habits, for example, you are missing out on huge opportunities to increase your sales numbers.

The next thing you need to understand is how to implement technology. This can be especially difficult if you have no background in IT or run a small business that cannot afford one IT staffer, let alone an entire department.

First and foremost, if you know nothing about technology, you need to find a partner that does. In almost all cases, that means an IT outsourcing firm. Most small business owners are surprised to learn how affordable such firms are—especially when they consider the return on their investment.

The right outsourcing firm will design a responsive website for your business. It can even manage this website. Further, such a firm can get you up and running on social media and take care of day-to-day tasks, such as posting on Facebook and tweeting. Finally, an IT outsourcing partner will make sure you are getting the most out your data.

Technology is a big deal. Implementing it doesn’t have to be if you know where to turn for help!

At a Loss for Words? How to Come Up with Great Content Topics.

At a Loss for Words? How to Come Up with Great Content Topics

In today’s digital marketplace, getting noticed online is essential to the success of your business. The key to getting noticed is writing and publishing outstanding content. Without quality, engaging content, your brand simply won’t get the attention it deserves.

Coming up with engaging content can be a difficult task. In fact, most marketers will tell you that it is their biggest challenge. In light of this fact, we’ve assembled a list of ideas that may help to get your creative (and marketing) juices flowing.

  • Follow the leaders. What are the thought leaders in your industry talking about? While you don’t want to cover all of the same topics, when you keep up with the experts in your field you get a feel for what is trending in your particular industry.
  • Provide answers. If you have customers, chances are these customers have asked you questions about products or services they want or need. Expanding on these questions makes for great content.
  • Get social. See what topics are trending on social media. If people in your industry are talking about it, they will want to read about it on your blog or website, as well.
  • Read the Comment Section. Comment sections can be a goldmine of content topics. When you read what people have to say about issues relevant to your industry, you can address those comments in your blogs or articles.
  • Brainstorm. Writing content can be a lonely task. That is why it is important that you take time to brainstorm with people in your office from time to time. What do they think you should be writing about? Just bouncing ideas off other people can spark ideas you may not have otherwise considered.
  • Conduct Interviews. Are you a blogger for an interior design website? Interview an up-and-coming designer. Chances are he or she will be thrilled with the exposure. What’s best, such interviews may help you come up with other ideas.
  • Talk about your failures. Not every blog or post has to have a happy ending. Cautionary tales are a great way to save your readers from making the same mistake you—or someone else—has made.

There are a million things to write about but, unfortunately, sometimes it can be difficult to come up with just one. Hopefully, the tips above will spark some incredible content. Happy writing!