There are so many ways by which you can market your small business. Perhaps because of this fact, many small business owners tend to overlook one very significant marketing strategy – that is, gaining referrals. In fact, if you ask many small business owners what they do to actively get referrals, they will probably give you a blank look or even scratch their head. If you are thinking along the same lines, I need you to think again and realize that referrals can be one of the most effective ways by which you market your business AND that you need to actively seek them out.

How can you do this? Isn’t providing excellent services or products enough to get you referrals? Theoretically, this is correct. If you provide the best service or product to your customers, then the chances are that they will spread the word among their friends and colleagues about you. Then again, wouldn’t it be better not to simply sit back and take that chance?

One way of actively seeking out referrals is by making it part of your business practice. That is, you voice out your desire for referrals from your customers. For example, you can include a short spiel when conducting your business. At the end of your transaction, you can tell your customer something like this: “Sir/Madam, we are confident that you are going to enjoy our product and that you will get the best experience out of it. As part of your responsibility as our client, we would like to encourage you to provide us with an X number of referrals within X number of months.”

Why is this effective? Because you have given them a guarantee that they will be happy with your service or product. That means you will do what it takes to provide them satisfaction. In the customer’s mind, referrals are nothing compared to that.

I think that the previous post was pretty convincing, wasn’t it? What better motivation than considerably less cost for marketing? Of course, there is always a downside to everything and email marketing is not exempt from this. I am not out to dissuade you from utilizing email for marketing purposes – far from it. I just want to provide an objective point of view as much as possible. So here we go with the potential disadvantages of email marketing.

I have mentioned this before – email can easily become spam. I am sure that you have had your own experiences with spam. You probably dislike spam with a fervor – just like any other individual. However, this topic is not as clear cut as we would like it to be.

What constitutes spam? For some people, spam is basically any unsolicited email. And they take action against this kind of activity. Now, if your emails are unsolicited and sent in bulk – and this would seem to be the route to take for email marketing – you just might find yourself being labeled as a spammer.

This is one complexity that you have to consider when choosing email as your medium for marketing. One way to avoid being labeled as a spammer would be to include a double opt-in method. Wikipedia describes this as “a method which requires a potential recipient to manually confirm their request for information by clicking a unique link and entering a unique code identifier to confirm that the owner of the recipient email address has indeed requested the information. Responsible e-mail marketing and autoresponder companies use this double opt-in method to confirm each request before any information is sent out.”

We’ve established the fact that email can be used for more than the simple day to day needs of corresponding with other people. If you are a business owner, you have probably realized that email can be a very powerful tool for marketing purposes. In this post, let us discuss some of the advantages that using email for marketing can bring you and your business. I have already mentioned the biggest advantage in the previous post – lower costs. What else does email marketing have to offer?

Short delivery time
When you conduct transactions via electronic means, the transaction time is usually instantaneous. Same thing goes with email – once you click the send button, you can expect your message to get to the intended recipients almost instantaneously.

Accessibility
Ask the average person how many times he checks his email. Actually, you do not even have to go that far – ask yourself the same question. I am sure that at the very least, you would say “a few times” a day. If this is the case for majority of your customers – existing and potential – then your emails will gain more exposure and customers will find you to be more accessible.

Automation
Certain actions can be done automatically without human intervention. This is a big advantage of email marketing. If you lessen the time that you (or your workers) spend on the less important things, you can free up their time to work on more urgent needs. Naturally, you see this as an advantage, right?

In the next post, let us look at the disadvantages of email marketing.

Email is a very powerful tool for marketing. This is a fact that is generally accepted by many. What do you know about email and its potential for marketing? Perhaps, if you are like the general public, your idea of email marketing might be limited to mass mailings. Though this is indeed one of the main ways by which you can utilize emails for marketing purposes, it is by no means the only way.

If you want to consider email as a marketing tool, then you should do away with that limited way of thinking. Instead, try to see email and related activities in a broader sense. Here are some relevant points I got from Wikipedia:

• sending e-mails with the purpose of enhancing the relationship of a merchant with its current or previous customers and to encourage customer loyalty and repeat business,
• sending e-mails with the purpose of acquiring new customers or convincing current customers to purchase something immediately,
• adding advertisements to e-mails sent by other companies to their customers, and
• sending e-mails over the Internet, as e-mail did and does exist outside the Internet (e.g., network e-mail and FIDO).

As you can see, the medium is the same, the ideas similar, but the results hold even more potential if you consider these points.

How about the advantages and disadvantages of using email for marketing? Naturally, these two concepts have to be considered. One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is that it does not cost as much as other forms of marketing. It could even be virtually free. There is more to it than this, though. Let us take a deeper look at the pros and cons in the next post.

Every blogsite is often a single-faced venture—it can either be for business or as a business. It’s rare that you’ll come across a website that is working for both, just like TimothySykes.com. This website serves as Tim Sykes’ online store, where he sells products, and blogsite, where he shares and promotes his expertise.

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In the last post, we talked about how important it is to brand your blog. That is, to make sure that your blog has a lasting impact on your readers and to keep them remembering your blog (and thus your business) without much effort at all. We discussed two points – using your own domain and creating a logo. Here are more ideas on how to brand your blog.

Make sure your blog is user friendly
This is a very important aspect when it comes to blogs. In fact, it does not matter whether you are blogging for personal purposes or for business purposes. It is of utmost importance that you bear in mind your users. You want them to have an easy time navigating your blog. You want them to find it easy to read your posts and to find relevant posts as well.

An important thing to consider is the layout of the blog. Make sure that it is organized and that the links are easy to find. Also, make sure that you are not permeating your blog with ads that could be irritating to the user. These and other things should be on your mind when you design your blog.

Think up of a smart motto
It may sound cliché but mottos and slogans work. They are important in helping your customers remember your business and what it is all about. This part could be tricky – just as tricky as coming up with a relevant logo – so you should take your time with this.

If you want to read more about branding and its relevance, try this post that I came across on Typepad.

Branding is not a new concept. It has, in fact, existed way back in the ancient times. Only then, they did not have the Internet. Businessmen in the ancient times branded their livestock and their products, literally. Today, when someone mentions the word “branding,” we have a slightly different idea but the basic concept remains the same. We want to create something that would be associated with our business. We want to be known and branding helps us achieve that goal.

When it comes to online presence, it is very important that we brand our blog. There are countless blogs and web sites in existence – it is very easy to get lost in that world. So how do you brand your blog? Here are some ways to help you get started.

Use a domain
Forget about free blog platforms – that is, if you really want to make your presence easier to remember. The idea is for people to find you easily and to remember you. Imagine having to remember a URL that is something like this www.blogplatform.businessname/blog. It could be tricky and people might get the wrong URL most of the time. It would be so much easier to make use of hosting services and use your business name for the domain name. Sure enough, you have to pay for this but it is a small cost as compared to the benefits it brings.

Use a logo
Logos are old but they work. Most every business has a logo of its own. The cliché says “a picture paints a thousand words” – so does a logo. Come up with a creative one that catches people’s attention and relates to the nature of your business. Place it prominently on your blog and web site and anywhere else that you can. You’ll see that people will find it easier to remember your business!

One of the most important aspects of a business is its public relations. Wikipedia defines this as “the managing of outside communication of an organization to create and maintain a positive image. Public relations involve popularizing successes, downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities.” In other words, PR includes all the activities that you engage in in order to present your business to the rest of the world the way you want it to be seen. Naturally, any business owner would want good PR.

One way to have good PR – no, a killer PR, actually – is to build up that business blog of yours. You may be a small business entity as compared to Microsoft or Sony, but that does not mean that you cannot establish yourself as an authority in your own field. No matter what your business may be about, you can always find ways to bring yourself to the forefront of your niche – and blogging is one of the ways to do this.

Nowadays, journalists and researchers turn to the Web for a lot of material. When they create write ups, they would probably include a Google search in their prep work. Now, if you have a good online presence, then you would most likely be discovered by these people, who, in turn would probably quote you (from your blog) in their piece of work. Now isn’t that killer PR? You do not even have to solicit the local newspaper’s attention – they would find you on their own because of your business blog. Ask Rich Brooks, who has had ample enough experience in this respect.

I am sure you know that old saying by heart: the only thing constant in this world is change. With what we have been experiencing in the past year or so, I am also sure that many of you have experienced this saying first hand. Change has been happening all over the world in various sectors, and the business sector has not been exempt from that. Your own business might even have had to undergo some major changes as well.

Talking about change, how is your business when it comes to dealing with change? Are you and everyone involved resilient enough to weather any changes that might happen or are you resistant to the possibility? Let me tell you know, even without an impending change in the horizon, it is always important that you ready yourself, your employees, and your business itself to change. At one point or another, it is bound to happen. And when it does, you will only really benefit if you are ready for it.

How do you prepare yourself, your employees, and your business itself for change?

Take a close look at your company culture. Perhaps you are of the traditional kind. Perhaps the culture that has been ingrained in your business is resistant to change. If so, it is time to do something about that. Talk about change on a regular basis. Talk about it in meetings. Talk about it over coffee. The idea is to help your employees open their mind to change and for them to be able to see it as a positive thing.

Here’s to change!

Medium sized businesses have a relatively high budget for gas. This is especially true if the nature of your business requires that your employees travel. Sales, marketing, and other similar activities will require that you move from point A to point B on a regular basis. One way to lessen your gas expense would be to find a supplier that will provide gas for your fleet at a good deal. But what if you are not getting the best deal out of that supplier? How can you save more on gas?

Make sure you have a concrete contract.
Verbal arrangements may work for some but you will always be better off with a contract in black and white. This will protect you when gas prices fluctuate. The important thing is that you get a deal in writing, a deal which will make both parties happy.

Do your homework.
Before signing that contract, make sure that you are not being made to pay more than you should. Look around for other gas suppliers that have similar services to businesses. Compare their rates and ask around for discounts and deals. Get the best deal and sign a contract with that supplier.

Do it yourself.
There is no need to pay someone to do the research for you or to broker the deal for you. While it may save you a little bit of time and effort, it will cost you a considerable amount of money – money that you can use for some other profitable activity. As such, set aside time and do the work yourself and save yourself some money!