Why Small Business Owners Should Write Personal Blogs Posted on May 3, 2017June 20, 2018 by Allie Wolff We’ve all stumbled across blogs where the authors overshare—whether about a run-in with a nasty client or their personal romantic woes. But don’t let their mistakes discourage you from writing a personal blog. Personal blogs are a powerful tool for small business owners. In a digital world full of dry, impersonal company blogs, one that shares the unique spark of your personality and passion can go a long way toward attracting your ideal customers. And just because the blog is a personal one doesn’t mean you can’t optimize it with keywords you want to own in the marketplace, attention-grabbing headlines and photos, uniquely useful videos and other methods to draw visitors to your site. So how do you strike the right tone in your blog? Here are some tips. Learn from the pros. Check out the blogs of popular writers such as Seth Godin, Brad Feld and Tim Ferris and others your friends have recommended to you. Which ones do you like? What elements of your favorites make you feel connected with the authors? Are the posts you like short but meaningful? Full of personal anecdotes? Funny? Paying attention to what works in well-regarded blogs can give you ideas on how to make your own personal blog successful. Find the right medium. Some people express themselves best in writing. For others, recording a blog on video is the best way to get their message across. If you’re not sure what your best medium is as a blogger, try both methods and ask colleagues you trust to give you honest feedback. Should you find that both methods are effective for you, there’s no reason to limit yourself to just one. Get your creative juices flowing. There is great material all around you—as you’ll find if you start looking for it. A funny comment by one of your children or a pet, a personal foible like trying too hard in a weekend sports league, or an honest story about how your company messed up and then fixed a problem can all be good subject matter. Some small business owners find they do best as bloggers when they take a stand. While you probably want to stay away from topics we’ve all learned to avoid at dinner parties—such as religion and politics–your blog can be a way to let customers know about other causes you care about. Say your company donates regularly to research for a rare disease that you believe is not getting the attention it deserves. Blogging about why you care about the disease is a good way to raise awareness for the cause—and to show your readers what you’re all about. Ask your team for help. The best source of new ideas may be the people who work with you every day. Ask everyone who works for you to suggest great stories to share in your blog. For instance, perhaps they witnessed a fellow team member doing something extraordinary for a customer. Giving a shout-out to your employee in a personal blog is a great way to reinforce the values your company embraces—to your team and the larger universe of customer and prospects who may not yet know about them. Build a content pipeline. A common reason for blog abandonment is running out of material. To make sure you don’t forget about your great ideas, keep an Excel spreadsheet or use a program such as Evernote to store them. You’ll be amazed at how many incredible ideas you can accumulate once you start keeping track of ideas that inspire you. Make a blogging date—with yourself. Content marketing is a serious commitment—and just as important to your business as other efforts to raise your profile, such as public speaking. It may even be more important, given that blogs have a longer shelf life online than a speech unless you’ve had someone record your talk for you. Given the busy daily schedules of small business owners, your blog won’t happen if you don’t block out a recurring time on your calendar for it. Once you get into a groove, you’ll find you look forward to the break from other business tasks. Once you finish a post, read it aloud to yourself. It’ll help you weed out clunky or long-winded phrases quickly and make sure it reads like you really talk. Set a deadline. No matter how dedicated you are, it’s easy to let your blogging slip if you don’t have a hard deadline. Ask someone on your team to be your “editor” and set a date and time each week by which you must submit the blog to them. Ask your editor to point out any areas that are unclear, confusing or otherwise need work. Then get ready to post it and promote it on social media. You may be surprised by how many people are interested once you start sharing your own journey as an entrepreneur with the world beyond your office.
5 Lessons From Wildly Successful Business Leaders Posted on May 2, 2017May 2, 2017 by Jonathan Herrick One of the best ways to grow as a small business owner is to learn from great leaders and entrepreneurs who have been in the “trenches” building their business. Fortunately, there are many inspiring examples. Here are five examples of big wins by well-known entrepreneurs that will help you unlock ideas you can use to grow your own business. 1. Mark Zuckerberg’s sizzling profits at Facebook Twelve years since Facebook was founded, it is still showing remarkable growth. CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg—chosen as Fortune’s Business Person of the Year—led the company to net profits that were up 166% over the previous year in the most recent quarter. Photo Credit: Wikipedia How did he pull it off? The company excels at engaging with users—and attracting new ones. In the third quarter, Facebook’s daily active users rose 17% year over year. Facebook has kept its platform interesting through additions such as Marketplace, where people can buy and sell items locally. What you can learn from Zuckerberg: Stay close to your customers.There’s no substitute for keeping your current customers engaged by understanding their needs and looking for new solutions to solve their greatest challenges. Word-of-mouth from these engaged users also helps to attract new ones and drive sales. Make this year the year the “Year of the customer” and you’ll heat up profits and growth for your business. 2. Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield’s partnership with IBM In October, the online messaging app Slack announced a crowdsourcing partnership with IBM to include the supercomputer Watson, which uses artificial intelligence to answer questions, into the service. Under the agreement, Slack developers and enterprise users will have access to Watson, with the goal of making it more intelligent and developing new communication tools. What you can learn from Stewart Butterfield: By making Watson available to Slack’s developers and crowdsourcing their ideas, Butterfield is increasing the odds of significant new innovation at Slack. Crowdsourcing ideas—such new menu items or services your customers or users want—can help you grow your business the same way. To get the ball rolling, place a customer suggestion box in a prominent location at your business or use digital channels such as social media or your website o turn your audience’s feedback into sustainable innovation for your small business. 3. Richard Branson’s release of the Boom Supersonic airplane Richard Branson recently unveiled the prototype for the Boom Supersonic. This ultra-speedy plane can fly 45 people from London to New York City in three and a half hours—usually a flight that takes six or seven hours. The Concord once offered flights that were just as speedy, but thanks to high fuel costs, they stopped flying in 2003. Branson took the lessons of the Concord to heart in his new, smaller planes, which guzzle less fuel—and got a great start on his much-awaited new service. Photo Credit: Wikipedia What you can learn from Branson: Even if your business has nothing to do with aviation, Branson’s release of the Boom Supersonic shows why it pays to constantly innovate and persist in going after seemingly unattainable goals. This year, consider setting what Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and other best sellers, calls a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. Whether you aim to win a big account or introduce an ambitious new service, you’ll help your business reach new heights. Even if you miss the mark, you’ll be miles ahead of where you expected to be. 4. Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman’s deal with Neiman Marcus Rent the Runway, which lets its customers rent expensive designer clothes for a fraction of the price of buying them, recently struck a deal to run a boutique Neiman Marcus’s San Francisco store, with a few more of the in-store boutiques to come in the future. The deal is a win-win: Neiman Marcus will have a chance to lure Rent the Runway’s millennial customers into its stores, while Rent the Runway will be able to introduce itself to Neiman Marcus’s customers, whose average age is 51. What you can learn from Jennifer Hyman: Partnering can be a great way to expand what your company can do on its own. On paper, Neiman Marcus and Rent the Runway look like competitors, but as the two companies concluded, working together will bring advantages for both. In your own small business, look around for opportunities to partner with others who may benefit from the arrangement. For instance, if you run a coffee shop that sells unique roasts, why not reach out to a popular local restaurant to see if you can be a supplier? They may enjoy including locally roasted coffee on the menu—and you’ll win some new business, too. 5. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Presidential Medal of Freedom Bill and Melinda Gates were recently awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their Foundation and its work in helping” all people lead healthy and productive lives.” The headline-grabbing foundation has awarded more than $36 billion in grants to fight diseases such as malaria and HIV in developing countries, empower women and girls, and give back in other ways. Photo Credit: Wikipedia What you can learn from Bill Gates: Even without the deep pockets of the world’s richest man, it’s possible for your business to give back. In this season of giving, why not make it a priority to increase what you give to a cause you care about. Whether you donate a portion of your profits to a local animal shelter, sponsor a local baseball team or volunteer as a mentor or Big Brother or Sister, try increasing your commitment by 10%. It’s a great way to make a difference.
Everything Your Small Business Needs To Know About Cybersecurity Posted on May 1, 2017March 21, 2025 by Jeanna Barrett If your small business doesn’t have cybersecurity processes in place, you’re currently at risk. Many business owners assume they’re safe because their business is small and online attackers are more likely to target large corporations with lots of money. But, this assumption is wrong. Because small businesses often don’t have the budget or knowledge to protect themselves against online attacks, they are at a higher risk than corporations that do. According to SmallBizTrends.com, 43 percent of cyber attacks target small businesses and 60 percent of small businesses go out of business within six months of a cyber attack. Now is the time to ensure your business doesn’t fall victim to online attackers. The 6 Types of Sensitive Information Cyber Attackers Look For Cyber attackers are targeting businesses online to gather data they can use to benefit themselves. Below are the types of information that is most commonly at risk, and where you should put processes in place to protect your business: Customer records Intellectual property Customer credit card and debit card information Financial information Employee records Business correspondence The Top 10 Ways Your Business Can Be Attacked Online Below are the common types of attacks that happen when a small businesses security is breached online. If you understand how your business can be attacked, it’s easier to prevent this from happening: Web-based attack Phishing/Social engineering General malware SQL injection Compromised/stolen devices Denial of services Advanced malware/zero day attacks Malicious insider Cross-site scripting Ransomware Understand the 5 Best Ways to Protect Your Business from a Cyberattack Now that you understand different ways your business can be attacked and the types of information you should be protecting, it’s time to put security in place to protect yourself. Here’s what you can do today to protect your business’s sensitive information: Use Antispyware and Antivirus Software: There are a number of options for software to protect your computer from attack. Some of the most popular are McAfee, Webroot, Bitdefender and Norton. PC Mag has a great comparison grid of antivirus software to protect your business. Once you choose a software, make sure it is always up to date. In addition, your operating system software and any other types of software — such as WordPress — should always be kept up to date too. Outdated software can lead to holes in security that attackers can discover and use. Utilize Strong Passwords: Don’t use passwords for your business such as BusinessName123. It’s best to use a phrase and include numbers, capitals and special characters. You can even use an online tool to check how secure your password is. Secure Your Networks Used to Access the Internet: When signing on to your business’s WiFi network, make sure you utilize a firewall and make sure your WiFi network is secure and hidden. To do so, setup your wireless router so it doesn’t broadcast the name (otherwise known as a SSID: Service Set Identifier). Also consider using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to the internet instead of an open WiFi connection. VPNs allow you to encrypt your internet connection so data shared cannot be seen by third parties. Control Access to Sensitive Data: In a recent study of small businesses that experienced a data breach, the number one root cause of the breach was a negligent employee or contractor. Make sure your business creates a set of internet security policies and procedures and holds workshops or security trainings so every employee — including new ones — are aware of how to avoid sharing sensitive information or access to this information. You should also control access to business computers that house sensitive data, give a separate login to each employee, and only give administrative privileges to yourself, the IT department or one to two other key individuals. Don’t Forget Mobile Phone Security: Mobile phones are not only easily stolen, but they often contain access to a number of sensitive business applications such as email or cloud storage. Ensure all of your employees have a password protected phone, and software that enables them to encrypt data, and locate and wipe lost phones. Now that you have a better understanding of how small businesses are attacked, what information is stolen, and how to protect your business from a cyberattack, you can ensure your business stays compliant this year. If you’d like even more tips on how to protect your business from cyber attacks, Small Biz Trends and Microsoft partnered to create an eBook with more than 75 tips to protect your small business.
Here’s How To Make The Most of Your Website’s ‘About’ Page Posted on April 28, 2017May 1, 2017 by Jessica Lunk At its core, your website’s “About” page isn’t really about you, but about your page visitors. In fact, every page on your website should answer site users’ unspoken question, “So what?” once they arrive there. Site visitors want to know why they should care enough to spend time on your page, because there are billions of other ones they could be using. Your “About Us” page should ultimately be about your readers and what you can do for them and how your business is suited to fit their needs. The copy on the page should use “you” and “your” generously and avoid making it “me, me, me.” When you make it all about you, your awards, and how great you are, you don’t come across as a company that is interested in visitors (and customers) pain points. But when you make it about the reader, and what your business can do for them, you come across as trustworthy and qualified. Here are some more tips on how to put your “About” page to work and make it earn its keep. Make Your Headline Count Your “About” page headline doesn’t necessarily need to be “About Us.” They know that from having clicked on a link to it, or from the URL. You have the opportunity with your headline to state your value proposition and let them know right away how you will solve their problems. Suppose you run a gym. Rather than “About Us” as a headline, you could have something like, “We’ll Help You Get Fit, on Your Schedule” to indicate what you do (helping people get in shape) and what differentiates you (business hours that accommodate weekends and nights, for example). People are busy, and you only have a tiny amount of time to show them that consuming this page is worth their time. Therefore, you should put your headline to good use. Make an Emotional Connection People often make decisions based on their emotions, waiting until afterward to justify them with facts. Therefore, you shouldn’t make your “About” page a dry treatise that simply lays out the facts. Rather, it should have an element of emotional storytelling, which engages the brain more fully and helps information “stick” better. You want this page to make clear how you can solve your visitor’s problem, but when you also have a layer of emotionally resonant content (like an unusual story of how your company was founded), you can connect with them more fully than you would with a list of facts. Include a Call to Action Your “About” page is capable of nudging people a bit further through the sales funnel. There’s simply no reason not to include a call to action button on this page. Like the CTA on a landing page or any other page, it should be high-contrast and spell out what happens next. Maybe it’s a brightly colored button reading “Get a quote,” or “Hire us.” You may have to run some A/B tests on the page to see what works best. But don’t waste the opportunity a great “About” page offers by leaving off a clear, compelling call to action. Don’t Cognitively Overload Visitors While it may seem like loads of information go into a successful “About” page, that doesn’t mean that the page itself should be crammed with content. Follow the normal rules about clean space, graphics, fonts, and general page aesthetics. If you want to go into more depth, say, with bios for each partner, you can provide a link to a page that does that rather than including them. The “About” page doesn’t need the brevity and starkness of a landing page, but it shouldn’t be so jammed with information that the essentials of “how we solve your problem,” “why you should care,” and “here’s what to do next” are buried in a bunch of digital clutter. Too many small companies treat their “About” page almost as an afterthought, but it shouldn’t be that way. This page offers you a tremendous opportunity to inform, engage, excite, and help potential customers further through your sales funnel. If it’s been awhile since you revisited your “About” page, take a fresh look at it. You’re almost certain to see opportunities for putting the page to work more effectively.
3 Keys to Writing Killer Google AdWords Copy Posted on April 27, 2017July 12, 2018 by Jeanna Barrett Whether focusing on pay-per-click advertising (PPC) or search engine optimization (SEO), Google is a marketing channel your business must be focused on for growth. With more than a billion monthly searches, consumers using billions of Android devices and 100s of millions of people using Google applications such as Gmail and Google Drive, the online search behemoth is the top place to find your customers. To understand how important PPC advertising is, take a look at the numbers: businesses make on average $3 in revenue for every $1.60 they spend on Google AdWords. But, spending on PPC advertising can be costly if not done correctly. You can look at hiring a PPC firm to help manage your business’s search advertising, or you can DIY with the help of Google Adwords online tutorials and guides. Either way, getting the most out of your Adwords investment starts with creating killer AdWords copy that entices your audience to click. Here are three tips to writing AdWords copy that converts: 1. Speak Directly to Your Customers When writing PPC ads, it’s important to focus on your customer — what will they get out of your service, what are they looking to solve? Instead of writing copy about your business and what you do, write about your customer and what they need. To write PPC copy focused on your customer, keep these two tips in mind: Use “You:” Many copywriters and marketers have studied and tested words that perform best in advertising and get people to click. These “power words” include “free,” “try,” “opportunity,” “learn” and more. The most important power word is: YOU. Since your ad might be the first interaction with a new customer, you want this to be a valuable first interaction. Use words that indicate you’re having a conversation with them, by using “you” to speak to them directly and connect. Anytime you’re inclined to use the word “we,” think about how you can rewrite the copy to instead use “you.” Solve a Problem With Your Call-to-Action: What’s the problem your customers are looking to solve by conducting a search in Google? Do they need a new logo? Do they want to replace their iPhone screen? Make sure your PPC ad copy in Google AdWords directly addresses the problem they’re trying to solve. A great example of both tips above can be found with doing a test search in Google of the phrase, “cheap flights.” Notice the first ad from Expedia starts out with, “We offer the best deals on flights worldwide.” That phrase addresses what they do, not what the consumer needs. A better example of how you want to write your ad copy is the third ad from eDreams where they say, “Compare and save on your flight.” Instead of talking about what their brand is and what they do, this AdWords copy is speaking to the problem the customer is trying to solve. 2. Be Hyper-Local If you sell products nationally or internationally, you might be inclined to write blanket copy and set your targeting at a bunch of different locations. But, specific copy works best. Focus your ad targeting and copy to geographic regions, and they’ll likely perform better (but do a test, just in case there is a use case that differs for your business). Remember these two tips when creating hyper local AdWords Copy: Target Locally Instead of Broad: Write your headline and copy to speak directly to the customer within a specific geographic region. Mention their location or specific pain points that might exist for customers in that locale. Include a Local Number Instead of a 1-800 Number: It’s best practice to include a phone number that customers can “click to call” within an ad. A fair amount of brands and businesses using Google AdWords use a blanket 1-800 number for their Google ads. However, studies show that you could double your conversion rate if you include a local number. You can buy local numbers to use and track within your campaigns through services such as CallRail and Call Tracking Metrics. 3. Test Copy, Test Headlines & Test Results A ton of advice exists online for how to effectively run Google AdWords campaigns successfully. However, a lot of the advice and tactics differ based on business type and products. So, the best advice we can provide is to test, test and test again. Don’t think that your first version of AdWords copy will be your best. Google AdWords copy expert Amy Middleton Hebdon suggests writing three versions of your AdWords copy and testing all three versions. The three suggested versions go as follows: Write an ad version that answers, “what’s in it for me” and discusses the value of your business and what customers will get from purchasing from you. The second ad version will focus on the pain point you’re solving and the services you provide. Finally, your third copy version is a wild card — get creative, write creative copy and headlines and something completely different from the first two ads. After you write these three versions of copy, load them up in Google AdWords and run all three ads to see which one performs the best. As you test, you’ll learn the type of language that speaks to your customers. And don’t forget — with all your campaigns — make sure you’re tracking the right AdWords metrics to measure your success and return on investment.
6 Tips for a More Organized Small Business CRM Posted on April 26, 2017January 22, 2021 by Jessica Lunk Many business owners find that a customer relationship management system (CRM) makes it much easier to stay in touch with clients and prospects. A CRM can be a great tool for understanding the ideal way to keep all of your contact with customers current and a smart task organizer that helps you to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. But to get the most out of your CRM, you need to keep it organized. Just like keeping a tidy desk or computer, a neat CRM system can be an invaluable foundation for a small business. Here are some strategies to help you keep your CRM organized: Really familiarize yourself with your CRM. Many of us are so rushed we don’t want to slow down long enough to watch a tutorial or read helpful guides to maximizing our CRM. This oversight can lead to sloppiness in how you store information that makes your CRM less efficient. Even if you’ve been using your CRM for years, reach out to your account manager and take 30 minutes to make sure you’re using it as effectively as you can. Given that many CRMs get updated periodically, there are probably some features you could be using to keep it more organized that you don’t even know about yet. There may be tools for labeling or sorting information that you haven’t tried. Once you know all that you can do with your CRM, you’ll be able to keep it more organized. Make your CRM part of your routine. Maintaining your CRM system can be a little like keeping up with your travel and entertainment expenses at work. Entering data while it’s still fresh in your mind is better than doing it in a marathon once a year. How often you update your CRM depends on your preferences. Some business owners who work with a large volume of customers update the entries in their system the moment new information flows in, so it doesn’t slip through the cracks. Others do it once a week as part of their administrative routine, perhaps on the same day they tackle tasks like sending out invoices. Blocking out time on your calendar to make updates can be a good way to ensure you stick with it. If you find you never have time to keep your CRM current, consider delegating the job to someone else on your team, such as an administrative assistant or marketer. Your CRM won’t be as helpful if it’s filled with incorrect, outdated information. Automate workflows where you can. There are a ton of tools you can use – like Zapier – that can help you automatically collect new contacts and update fields in your CRM. Better yet, integrating with a marketing automation tool can help you automate workflows – like following up with hot prospects in your database, or sending an email training course to new customers. The more you can automate data collection and entry for your team, the less human error you’ll run into and the cleaner your data will be. Share the wealth. Give key members of your team access to your CRM, so they can benefit from the information you’ve gathered and add to it themselves. If you happen to know that it’s a client’s birthday, for instance, that information might be useful to a salesperson on your team who is looking for a reason to reach out to that customer. A good CRM will keep a running history or activity log on your records. That way, everyone who has access to your data can see a comprehensive history for each contact and company in your database.. Do regular housekeeping. Even if you update your CRM regularly, it’s easy for duplicate entries to slip in or for information to become out of date. Commit to doing regular “housekeeping” once a month to look for information that needs fixing, so you and your team have reliable information on hand at all times. Keep tasks up to date. Many CRMs have a function that lets you add tasks, such as sending a newsletter or renewing a contract, so you don’t forget about them and remain timely in your outreach. Taking full advantage of features like this can help ensure that you don’t forget about important steps that would help you close more sales. Make time to analyze your data. A good CRM will more than pay for itself by helping you slice and dice the information you’ve stored so you understand factors such as the demographics of your customer base and their buying habits. Get familiar with those features so you can really put your CRM data to work in your business strategy—and knock it out of the park when it comes to hitting your business goals.
Want to Grow Your Small Business? Take A Page From The Big Business Playbook Posted on April 25, 2017September 16, 2022 by Jonathan Herrick There’s no shortage of advice available for those who are new to running a small business. Obviously, building lasting customer relationships and delivering great customer service is paramount to sustainability. But when you’re looking to grow your business to the next level, where do you turn for ideas? Big business. I know what you’re thinking…”My business is great because we’re small, nimble and personal. The exact opposite of my big business competitors.” I agree. But most small businesses I talk to are afraid to play big. You simply cannot unleash your maximum potential if you don’t try to seize great opportunities or if your business goals and dreams are too small. One of the greatest ways to play big is to leverage cloud technology that gives you and your business access to amazing tools that once belonged only to huge enterprises. In other words, don’t buy into the excuse that your business can’t accomplish something simply because it’s small. With the right tools, from CRM software to email marketing to robust reporting, your small business can offer customers an alternative to larger providers, while still maintaining the strong relationships that are characteristic of many smaller businesses. Exceptional Customer Service Is Your Imperative It bears repeating: customer satisfaction is what brings existing customers back to your business. Not only is retaining existing customers far less expensive than acquiring new ones, if you build strong enough relationships with them, they’re more likely to advocate for your brand to other people. Tools like CRM, email marketing, and automated lead alerts help you manage customer relationships from the first contact until well after the sale, and these tools are as useful to the small business as they are to large corporations. You might think that you can manage your small customer base without marketing and sales tools in place, but as soon as you begin to scale, you’ll realize you need more effective tools than Gmail and Excel. Once you try more sophisticated tools, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly they provide a return on your investment. The truth is no business can afford to let customers and potential customers slip through the cracks – and this is particularly true for smaller businesses. Efficiency Key to Serving Customers Effectively Yes, people say that they crave the level of attention they get from smaller providers of goods and services. But at the same time, they expect efficiency and skill in their providers’ everyday processes. Often the word “process” can be a scary for smaller businesses that believe only larger companies need rigidly structured systems in place. That’s a myth. The reality is your small business can benefit immensely by finding a way to consistently communicate to your customers and drive improved efficiency. For example, if your team is able to put a sales and marketing process in place to score leads, segment lead lists effectively, and manage the deal pipeline proactively, it demonstrates consistently that your organization is on its toes and enables your business to better serve your customers in real time. At the same time, you’re probably working with a team that wears many hats and that has to do more with fewer resources. That’s an even better reason to implement more efficient processes and it also reaffirms the need to take advantage of big business tools such as a CRM. Tools Big Businesses Use Just as the master carpenter has a tool kit containing a specific selection of equipment, the business owner needs a selection of tools that make the marketing and sales processes more efficient. Being competitive requires being efficient, no matter what size your business is. Large enterprises have long enjoyed software tools for: CRM Instant alerts for hot leads Form builders Email templates Tag scoring List segmentation Deal pipeline management Task management Reporting With the growth of technology, enterprise features are now available to SMBs and are easier to use than ever. So there’s no reason your small business can’t have all these tools in one, integrated software platform, even if you run a solo operation or a very small operation. There’s a multitude of small business tools including CRM software, email marketing, and marketing automation software (including Hatchbuck!) that are designed to help smaller businesses remain organized, turn email messages into productive sales conversations, and automate marketing processes so that no opportunities slip away. If you’re looking to grow your small business, take a page out of the big business playbook. Develop and define a healthy process for your business that will help you deliver a repeatable experience for your customers and seize the opportunity to use tech tools to help you market like the big guys.
How to Manage a Team of Copywriters Without Stifling Creativity Posted on April 24, 2017July 12, 2018 by Allie Wolff If you’ve made a serious commitment to content marketing, you may have built a team of writers to help you. Whether that team is based in your office or is a virtual one that’s spread around the globe, it’s important to manage your writers so you don’t stifle their creativity. Creative people are often very passionate about their work, and some are sensitive. If they’re worried that you are going to criticize or nitpick what they’ve written, they may be hesitant to take the kind of risks that lead to innovative work. That said, no business can afford to publish bad writing. If a writer hasn’t delivered material that is spot-on, you’ll need to tactfully find a way to get it into shape before publishing it. So how do you nurture your writing team’s creativity while producing content that generates leads and sales? Here are some strategies to put to work. Hire the best writers you can afford. If you’ve never worked with a team of writers before and are on a tight budget, you may be tempted to hire the cheapest writers you can find. That can be a big mistake. Why? Because—as in every field—quality costs money. If one writer charges $20 a blog post and another charges $200, there is usually a reason. The person who charges $200 will generally produce better, cleaner copy and may need little to no editing, saving you time and editing costs. They will also have expertise in your niche and a strong, developed point-of-view. When you’re busy running a small business, the last thing you need to deal with is teaching an inexperienced writer the ropes of your industry. Hire people who already know how to do it and can show you published clips that are of similar quality to what you want to publish. That said, you don’t necessarily need to go over the top when it comes to spending. In a very small business, hiring an ad agency to write your copy is probably overkill. Instead, look for an experienced freelancer who serves many ad agencies or has done work for companies or publications you know and respect. A freelancer will have less overhead than an agency and can afford to charge you a little less. Make your expectations clear. It is hard for writers to deliver what you need if you’re not clear on what that is. “I’ll know it when I see it” won’t get you very far. Before you engage a single writer, find samples of writing you like that is similar to what you want to produce, so you can share it when them when planning projects. If you aim to create a white paper, for instance, look online for white papers that are written in the style and format you desire, to give your writers an idea of what you want. Be realistic. Asking your team to come up with a blog as funny as a Tina Fey skit will probably lead to disappointment. However, if you encourage your team to watch some comedy before they write your next blog, you may be pleasantly be surprised by the ways they work their sense of humor into your posts. Tap their passions. Most writers do their best work when writing on what interests them, so it helps to get to know them and what they care about. The writer who does a bang-up job about your new, green-office initiative may not be the right person to write a brochure about your profit-sharing plan. Even if your writers are located too far away to ever meet you in person, schedule an occasional phone call or Skype meeting to brainstorm. Building a rapport and getting to know them is a great investment in the future of your content strategy. Find a crackerjack editor. Every writer, no matter how good, needs an editor. No one can read their own writing with an outsider’s fresh eye. If you’re a confident editor, you may want to play this role yourself. But if your forte lies elsewhere—or you don’t have much time to edit—consider hiring a freelance editor on a site like Upwork or Remote.com. There’s no point in paying people to write copy for you if it never makes it out of your inbox because you’re too swamped to read it. How can you tell if an editor is good? Look for someone with experience in contributing to publications you know and respect or editing for quality clients. Ideally, your editor will be able to mentor your team of writers and bring out their highest potential, so they keep getting better and better. Quality content that speaks to your ideal buyer drives leads and customers for your business. The more capable they are of pulling readers into your website, the more your investment in content marketing will pay off.
6 Social Listening Tools for PR, Marketing and Competitive Analysis Posted on April 21, 2017April 21, 2017 by Jeanna Barrett If you want to understand your customers and competitors better, and how to create the best service and content to reach them, a great way to do so is by utilizing “social listening.” There are dozens of sites and places online that your target audience members are having conversations. By tracking just the mentions of your brand in social, you’re still missing out on conversations that could be relevant to your brand and industry. Social listening tools will allow you to track keywords, phrases and brands that will provide insight you can leverage for your small business. With social listening, you can: Find PR opportunities Discover new places to reach potential customers Uncover content ideas that will resonate Figure out ways to beat your competitors However, it’s important to understand that social listening is different than social monitoring. Monitoring tools track brand mentions, and common tools that get this job done are SproutSocial and HootSuite. Most brands today monitor sites like Twitter and Facebook for mentions of their brand, and respond when customers reach out. However, if you want to jump into the practice of social media listening in addition to monitoring, you’ll need to invest in a tool that tracks all sorts of conversations happening across the web — within forums, comments, websites, blogs, videos and more. Here are the best social media listening tools for your business: Sysomos Sysomos is an enterprise-level solution that has a ton of products to help with insights that would benefit your business. Their social media listening tool is the behemoth of social listening tools. It offers advanced social listening functionality, including: Track competitors, benchmark your brand against them, and understand industry trends Understand a backload of 13-months of data to sift through conversations that might matter and build a data set to analyze Set alerts for crisis management, trends that emerge and influencer engagement Tag conversations based on brand, service issues, engagement and more SproutSocial SproutSocial is known for social monitoring, but they also have some social listening tools built into their platform. Because of the lower price point and dual functionality, this can be a great option for small businesses who want to get started in social listening. Their platform allows you to conduct advanced hashtag and keyword queries; visualize your brand reach and how it compares to your competitors, see share of voice metrics, analyze sentiment and discover influencers online. Google Alerts Google Alerts is a great, free way to track mentions of keywords, phrases and brands. If you want to track what your competitor is up to, create a Google Alert for every time their brand is mentioned. You can also receive a daily or weekly digest around top phrases that might pertain to your brand such as “small business marketing” or “selling on Amazon.” SocialMention SocialMention is a free, online tool that tracks conversations blog, microblogs, bookmarking sites, images, videos and questions. Because it is free, it’s not entirely accurate and the data can get a little messy. However, it does offer free metrics associated with social listening such as brand reach, strength, sentiment and passion. You can view top keywords used with your search, top hashtags and top users mentioning the keyword or brand. To test it out, plug in your business name and see what you find. HARO HARO is a great way to “listen” in on public relations opportunities for your brand. In this platform, freelance writers and journalists list the sources they need for their publications and articles. By tracking the digests weekly, you can find places to offer your expert opinion. If you earn a mention in one of these articles, it’s a great place for brand awareness and a linkback to your business (which matters for SEO)! Traackr Traackr will allow you to connect with influencers and “listen” in on what they’re talking about and the content they’re sharing, so you can conduct conversations with them. The tool allows you to find influencers based on keyword searches, follow those influencers, track engagement with them, and reach out to collaborate. Just be sure you follow social etiquette when engaging with this influencers, so you don’t ruin a potentially great relationship for your brand.