Category Archives: Online

Effective Marketing and Your Virtual Location

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Almost without exception, your small business needs a virtual location, and that location is a website. What that location looks like and the factors that matter most to your type of business will determine exactly how you create your location. However, just like a physical store, there are some essentials that every virtual location must have.

You Need a Specific Address

You can’t just host a blog on a free site like Squarespace, Blogger, or WordPress. That is like telling someone that your business is located somewhere in a large city, but not telling them where. Google favors sites that have unique domain names.Continue reading→

4 Top Tips for Improving Your Online Presence

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Every business must develop a strong online presence to boost their brand awareness, encourage engagement, improve industry authority and increase sales. To maximize your success, we are providing four top tips for improving your online presence.

Website Optimization

Only 51% of small businesses currently have a website. This is despite 97% of consumers routinely searching for both products and services online. Any company hoping to boost their brand and sales must strive to create an aesthetically-pleasing, easy-to-use website that promotes their products, services, history and contact information.Continue reading→

Best Products to Enhance Employee Efficiency

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

How efficient is your business? Are all your procedures and processes running in a streamlined way? If you are left wondering about the answer, then maybe it is time you reviewed your business procedures and looked at ways you can make things run better.

That doesn’t mean you have to consider reducing staff; it just means making the workers you have more efficient by removing duplication and unnecessary work. One of the ways you can improve your workflow, is to invest in better technology.

Skype

Communication between employees can take a lot of time depending on how you currently communicate. Emails, especially those between different buildings, can be difficult if one of the workers is away on leave. However, it could be easier if you could speak to someone else straight away; through modern technology such as Skype.Continue reading→

Three Online Services Shaking Up Small Business Operations

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

It seems that everything can be ordered online today, from a new pair of shoes, to a day at the salon. With digital marketing and sales transforming the way we shop, communicate, and book our services, a business that hasn’t got an online distribution platform runs the real risk of becoming obsolete. While some local newspapers are holding steady, many more are closing down as our news and media consumptions have shifted online to take a new global form. This leaves local businesses in a difficult position, where they have to turn to large-scale corporations to advertise and distribute their services or risk being shut out of the digital marketplace. Consumers want to support local businesses, but don’t know where to turn on a globalized media platform. Here are three businesses in the UK that are shaking up the industry by connecting consumers with local services and professionals.Continue reading→

5 Things Every Small Business Website Needs

Contributed article in our small business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

There are many awful websites online. While some offer poor designs, others are not user-friendly or provide next to no value to their visitors. To ensure your company isn’t one of them, read the five things every small-business website needs.

  1. A Simple URL

A simple URL is not only easy to remember, but it will appear more professional. It is an extension of your brand, so you must carefully choose a domain name before you even embark with a web design. If possible, we recommend using your brand name so it stays in your visitors’ minds.

Companies are wise to opt for a .com domain or one applicable to their local area such as .co.uk. However, non-profits should opt for .org to build visitor trust. Also, try to avoid using hyphens or numbers in your URL, as it could cause confusion and a visitor may type in the wrong web address.Continue reading→

5 Reasons Your Small Business Should Focus More on Local SEO

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Local search engine optimization is often seen as the purview of big businesses helping people find the locations of their stores or restaurants. However, local search engine optimization is incredibly important while offering a very high return on invested effort. Here are five reasons your small business should focus more on local SEO.

Continue reading→

The USPS Is Not Dead! Here Are 5 Reasons to Use Business Letters

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

In a world where everything has gone digital, many business owners don’t understand the importance of formal communications. Why not just send a brief email or fax? There is a time and a place for those types of communications, but there are still five very good reasons to use the United States Postal System, USPS, for business letters. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is understanding formal business etiquette, and the art of writing business letters is one very important facet of that ethical code.Continue reading→

5 Ways Email Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Email marketing remains one of the most common marketing methods out there. It is a low cost way to market to customers with a high rate of return. Here are five ways email marketing can help you grow your business. All of them are within easy reach of every business utilizing email marketing, and none of them involve spamming your potential and current customers.

Use Email Marketing to Enhance Local Outreach

When someone talks about local outreach to potential customers via digital marketing, they initially think about local search engine optimization or sending messages to those customers in your marketing database and local area. However, you can use email marketing to improve local outreach. Continue reading→

The Best Ways to Market Your Small Business on a Budget

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

When starting your own small business, marketing is exceptionally important. You can have the best products or service in the world but that isn’t enough to make your business a success. You need to make sure people know about it. Big businesses have a huge budget to employ a marketing team to do it all for them. You might not have the resources to do this in the beginning. Fortunately, there are many great marketing strategies you can implement yourself.

Image Ref: Creative Commons CC0

 

Social Media

Social media is absolutely massive. As well as the main platforms, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, there are 100’s more you could use. Continue reading→

Marketing Tips for Startup Businesses

Contributed article in our business series. Enjoy! – Kimberly

Getting your business off the ground is hard work, regardless of how experienced you are and what industry you are hoping to break into. Those first few months of operation can take their toll, with registering your business, developing a business plan, investing in equipment, etc. The list is endless!

However, one important factor you must consider is your marketing strategy as it is a major element you simply cannot neglect. The marketing strategy you choose and develop is the difference between your businesses unwanted anonymity and having too much work to cope with.Continue reading→