Google’s newest social media site, Google +, is still growing as more users adopt it. There are approximately 100 million users on the site (compare that with Facebook’s 800 million +) and rising. Now that the site is more friendly to small businesses, there’s a lot to use it for. Here are the highlights.
It Helps with Search Results
It’s no surprise that Google prioritizes search results from Google + pages and profiles. If you’re not using the social site, you’re missing out on good opportunity to appear higher in search results. So if you post about “internet marketing for pigs” on Google +, the idea is that you’ll rank higher than other posts on Google.com. Any leg up you can get in the world of SEO is one worth taking!
Hangouts are Useful Features
If you have a small group (under 10) of people you want to get on a video chat, Google Hangouts is very simple to use. You could use this to hold a virtual team meeting or invite a few people to hear you speak on a given topic.
You can Find New Contacts
The longer you spend on Google +, the more people you’ll meet. If, for example, you’re browsing a contact’s profile, you might want to check out who is in her Circles. You can then add those to Circles of your own. If they add you back, they’ll start receiving your posts to their wall. You expand your reach instantly.
Your Page is a One Stop Resource
I feel the same about Facebook Pages for business: this page should have everything someone would want to know about your business. It keeps them from having to leave the source (in this case, Google +) to go to your site. It’s smart to have a presence on G+ for your company, even if you’re not very active on it yet. Make sure it’s filled out thoroughly and that you have a few posts up. Also, start adding people to your business’ Circles so that people become aware of you.
The ways we can use Google + for business are still unfolding. If you’re looking for more to sink your teeth into, join us for the free webinar Why Small Businesses Need to Pay Attention to Google Plus on March 13, 2012. We’ll cover how to get started with a Page for your business, as well as look at case studies of companies using the site well.
Photo source: dolphinsdock with Creative Commons
Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, an internet marketing firm specializing in marketing communications, copywriting and blog posts. She’s written two books: 101 Entrepreneur Tips and Internet Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs, and has blogged for several sites, including The Marketing Eggspert Blog, as well as Mashable, Small Business Trends, FutureSimple, BizLaunchandLead411. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.
You probably already know that stellar customer service is essential to help your small business reach its full potential. But regardless of your efforts, there will always be customers dissatisfied with the level of service you provide. But don’t view them as a nuisance or necessary evil. Adjust your perspective and examine how a very loud and angry customer could actually give your business just the boost it needs.
Below are some tips you can utilize in your small business to effectively handle dissatisfied customers:
1. Act Quickly
If you are faced with a dissatisfied customer, do not keep them waiting. This will only make their issue harder to resolve. Drop what you’re doing as best as you can and find out what the problem is as soon as possible. Remain calm, confident, and friendly, and address their needs quickly. If you absolutely can’t address their needs at that moment, get contact information, fix the issue, and quickly follow up.
2. Listen
More often than not, most dissatisfied customers are not looking for a freebie or a discount. They just want to be heard. Begin the conversation by asking what went wrong. Allow the customer to finish speaking, truly listen to what they’re saying, and show that you genuinely want to help resolve their issue. Being empathetic is much more likely to produce a positive outcome than figuring out who’s right and who’s wrong.
3. Don’t Take It Personally
This, of course, is much easier said than done. The first step is to understand that no business is perfect. Keep your personal feelings out of it – it’s not about you. After the problem is fixed, review why it happened and figure out how to prevent a future occurrence.
4. Come to a Joint Solution
If someone feels they deserve compensation, ask what they have in mind before you offer anything. You may find it’s much less than what you were considering. This is because acknowledgement is what most people are primarily looking for – and that’s free. By directly finding out what the person wants, you can usually save your company a lot of money and wasted effort.
5. Go the Extra Mile
When a dissatisfied customer demands compensation, don’t just accept their offer. Tack on a little more. This will definitely impress and show that you truly value that customer’s business, which is a great way to turn a dissatisfied customer into a customer for life. After all, someone who took the initiative and time to complain might also take the initiative and time to tell their friends about businesses they love.
6. Follow Up
Once the problem is solved and your customer is satisfied, follow up with them. Briefly recount the issue and ask if the solution reached has proved satisfactory. Then, simply say that you’re there if they have other needs or concerns. Just don’t make your follow-up call a sales pitch, or all the work you’ve done to create a satisfied customer could be wasted.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to handling unhappy customers, a sincere interest in wanting to help them is key. To achieve this, you need to consider the problem from their point of view. The last thing they’ll want to hear is why or how they are wrong. Remember, it may seem like a nuisance, but it pays to do this. Referrals and word of mouth marketing are often far more effective than standard advertising, and unhappy customers present the perfect opportunity to capitalize on this. In fact, in my experience running an online re-selling business, some of my most loyal customers are ones that I initially had problems with.
What tactics do you use when dealing with unhappy customers?
David Bakke owns an online reselling business and is a writer for Money Crashers Personal Finance, a blog that takes on topics such as money management, marketing strategies, and the best small business credit cards.
If you’re just starting out in your business, or are ready to get more professional, it’s time to look at how you brand your business. Branding includes everything from your website to your logo to the message you put out on social media sites. You want your branding to be consistent, appealing and professional. Here are five tips to get you started. Also, don’t miss our free Branding Basics webinar March 8, 2012.
1. Know How Colors Make People Feel
Colors make people feel a certain way. That might be anxious, calm or energized. Be aware of the message you’re putting out through the colors you use on your website and on your business cards. Consider the colors that are associated with your industry. For example, recycling or eco-friendly companies are often green, as that’s the color associated with healthy actions. Professional companies sometimes use a dark blue to signify seriousness. You don’t have to use these as a rule, but know that some colors will give off a more casual or serious vibe, and use them accordingly.
2. Invest in a Designer
Small businesses often assume they can’t afford to hire a graphic designer for logos and business cards, but sometimes you can’t afford not to. Freelance and contractor designers offer quality designs at a fraction of the cost of larger firms, as do college students. Another option is crowdsourcing design on sites like 99designs, which gives designers the chance to present you with several options for a design for one flat rate. You pick the one you like best.
3. Keep it Consistent
If you have a whimsical website, your logo and business cards should also be whimsical. Tie in elements from your site or logo on your social media platforms. The more consistent all of your branding is, the more people will begin to remember your brand.
4. Let People Take Assumptions from Your Branding
Even if you work in your pjs at home, your logo doesn’t have to say that. Professional branding can make your company seem bigger and more successful than it is. Let it! People want to have confidence in the companies they work with, and branding helps them feel that way about yours.
5. Stick With Your Branding…But Don’t Be Afraid to Update It
It’s important not to change your website design or logo every six months, because you want to create a lasting impression with customers. However, after a few years, consider updating your logo to ride with the times. Make small changes so it’s still recognizeable (check out how Pepsi’s logo has evolved over time).
Photo source: ilco on stock.xchng.
Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, an internet marketing firm specializing in marketing communications, copywriting and blog posts. She’s written two books: 101 Entrepreneur Tips and Internet Marketing Strategies for Entrepreneurs, and has blogged for several sites, including The Marketing Eggspert Blog, as well as Mashable, Small Business Trends, FutureSimple, BizLaunchandLead411. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.
When he was finishing high school Canadian entrepreneur Paul Foster had no idea what he wanted to do, but he was good at math and he liked business. A local university had one of the first coop programs for the chartered accountancy program. He figured he would start there and get his C.A. (Chartered Accountant) – he assumed it would open up doors for other careers – he just never left public accounting to pursue them.
In 1998, he attended a seminar where he felt like the presenter was talking directly to him. He was the technician Michael Gerber talked about in the E-Myth Revisited. He was working really hard and not enjoying any of it.
In 2000, Paul participated in a program that was the first step in transforming his business. “We were working on differentiation. I wanted to stop using the word ‘accountant’ to describe my offering. I developed ‘business therapist’ because it is different and unique, but it also describes the ‘listening and having someone to talk to’ component of my service.
When I hired Linda Lord as a business coach in 2005, I was able to appreciate and experience that dynamic from the other side of the desk. Linda states, and I totally agree, that the business tends to be a reflection of the owner. The business owner’s beliefs, attitudes and behaviors show up in the business – good or bad. A business owner who is open to explore and grow personally will find business growth so much easier. The name ‘business therapist’ also helps weed out those business owners who are unwilling to admit they need therapy. If a business owner is not open to look in the mirror, the reality is that I won’t be able to help them.”
Although Paul’s advisory practice was growing nicely, the accounting firm still provided a complete compliance and tax service to all his clients. Paul discovered the truth of Confucius’ proverb that “He who chases two rabbits catches neither.” Paul had to decide to let go of one of his rabbits! So as of October 1, 2011 he has a 100% business advisory firm. Paul is aligned with his passion. He is enjoying what he does and he is motivated, creative and innovative. “I now have the time, energy and resources to explore new ideas. I am working hard on creating a scalable web based business advisory model. We are looking to provide ‘knowledge as a product’ to small business owners in the U.K., U.S.A. and Canada.”
Paul is also developing some high level advisory programs for owners looking for quantum growth in their business. He is a fine example of a successful business owner who began with one type of company and transformed it into a specialized service company that now serves international client; helping owners to bust through self imposed barriers and excel.
Paul Foster, The Business Therapist 
Marketing your business online doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, it doesn’t have to cost at all! These tools are absolutely free to use, and there are many others that are cheap as well.
1. Hootsuite
If you’re looking for an easy way to manage your social media accounts, try Hootsuite. With the free version, you can manage up to five social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, WordPress and others. You can preschedule updates to go out when you need them to, monitor hashtags and track keywords.
The paid version ($5.99 US a month) gives you unlimited profile management and additional reports.
What’s neat about it: You can create visually pleasing reports on number of clicks your social posts are getting, as well as where the traffic is coming from. It’s very impressive for your clients or your boss!
2. WordPress
If you’re not blogging yet, now’s the time. WordPress is a free tool that lets you set up a blog in minutes. And there are literally thousands of templates you can customize for your blog (most are free, but some charge a nominal fee) to make it stand out.
What’s neat about it: Once you get your blog set up, you can add all kinds of plugins and widgets that let you track traffic, help your readers share your posts, and suggest other posts they might like.
3. BizSugar
Now that you’re blogging successfully, you’ll want people to read your posts. BizSugar is a social bookmarking site for entrepreneurs. You share your link and others can vote on it. It’s a great way to increase visibility to your site.
What’s neat about it: You can find other great articles as well. Just search by category or check under recently submitted links to see what you can learn about.
4. Google Docs
This is more of an admin freebie, but I can’t live without Google Docs. And most of my clients use it too, which makes it easy to share and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets. You can leave comments on a doc for others to read and respond to.
What’s neat about it: I really hated drafting a document and sending it to a client, then her sending it back, et cetera. This keeps it easy to manage revisions and not get updated versions mixed up.
5. Google Insights for Search
This tool isn’t publicized (my husband had to help me find it), but it’s a great research tool. Google Insights helps you figure out who’s searching for what online. In the example below, I searched for products worldwide under the Food & Drink Category:
The results could help me decide what products to push during what months:
What’s neat about it: Having insight (haha pun) into what people are looking for is ammunition against your competitors!
We’re seeing more and more free marketing tools every day. Make sure and join us for our webinar, How to Use Free Online Tools and Apps to Grow Your Business, on April 4, 2012.
Photo credit: ba1969
“I opened my business nine months ago and much like a pregnancy, giving birth to Forte Professional Services has not been easy. Yes, I just framed a business discussion in very female terms and the self-awareness that allows me to make that statement is hard-won. This period of what I unabashedly term gestation has been crucially important in shaping my business because I have learned to draw a line of demarcation between my family and work life. This entails both a balanced approach to scheduling and the embracing of aspects of my life that do not fit into the traditional model of a business professional.”
Before starting her own business, Karen was a successful manager for a Fortune 500 corporation. She attributes her rise in that company to an ability to meet both the demands of stakeholders while growing the people who worked in her teams. One day her manager, a very successful business woman in my community, asked her to describe her approach to work. “I explained that I aspired to treat everyone the same way I would want my children to be treated by their supervisors and peers. She didn’t like my answer and ended our discussion by telling me to never make coffee for our meetings again. She said it sent the wrong message to the men on our team.”
Karen took the woman’s advice to heart when she started Forte. She tried to minimize her ‘mothering’ characteristics by doing things like deleting birthdays from her calendar. “The very things that had compelled me to start my own business such as being home in the evenings to oversee my son’s homework became hard to achieve and I struggled to make time for him.” Recently, Smallwood’s son asked her to proofread his Grade 12 English essay on “Hamlet”. As she reflected on Polonius’s sage advice to his son of “to thine own self be true” she experienced the click of a profound epiphany. “My business was not growing as I had planned because its philosophical foundation was not an accurate reflection of me. I was unhappy and some of my clients were unhappy.”
As Karen reflects on her ethical orientation as a business owner, she boldly declares that she is a mother and that being a mother does not make her an ineffective business owner. “In fact,” she says, “more women than men are starting small businesses. I am by nature a nurturer and just because I may serve a client coffee doesn’t mean I won’t meet their deadlines.”
Accepting this about herself has helped her become more aware of her place in a long line of women who balance both home and career. “I lost sight of this as I tried to fit my business model into a frame that was not completely true to who I am. Learning to resist a false need to compensate for my personality is the greatest growth I have experienced as a new business owner. This growth has enriched me, my family and my clients. One might say that it has nurtured us.”
Karen Smallwood, Forte Professional Services can be found on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Webinars can be a great tool to market your business. Here are 10 reasons why you should consider using them as part of your marketing strategy.
They are:
1) Affordable
2) Convenient
3) Measurable
4) Another way to share or re-purpose your content
5) Educational
6) Time sensitive
7) Interactive
8 ) Engaging
9) An inbound vs. outbound marketing opportunity
10) Not geography based, so people can attend from anywhere.
To attend a free webinar please visit www.bizlaunch.com
If you’re contemplating starting a retail business, you may be on the fence about whether to make it a virtual store or a brick-and-mortar. Here are the pros and cons of each to help you in your decision.
Online Retail Benefits
The really wonderful thing about starting an online retail business is how easy and affordable it is. As long as you’ve got your inventory and an ecommerce website, you’re ready to go. You can operate from anywhere, and you don’t have to pay high-priced commercial rental rates.
Even if you don’t have a fancy ecommerce website, there are easy all-in-one options available for you, such as Amazon, Etsy and eBay. Each offers built in ecommerce solutions and credit card processing. All you have to do is plug in your product descriptions and upload a photo. The bonus is that these sites get a ton of traffic, so you’ll get more exposure than you would by starting from scratch with your own site.
Getting found online is also fairly easy, and definitely affordable, if you use social media and internet marketing.
Online Retail Drawbacks
Some items don’t sell as well online as they do in person. If you’ve got high end handmade crafts or art, you can post them to Etsy, but it might be months before anyone stumbles upon your glassblown vintage owl collection. If you sell in a category with a low search rate, you may find an online ecommerce business less successful than a physical storefront.
While marketing your website is easy, it does take effort (really that’s the case with any business, online or otherwise). If considering starting an ecommerce site, make sure you’ve got time and budget to dedicate to marketing it.
Brick-and-Mortar Benefits
Having the perfect store nestled in a row of eclectic shops and restaurants can help you connect with your community. Your shop can be a hangout spot for your customers, who are more likely to buy from you repeatedly if your store is homey enough to make them feel comfortable.
Being located near other high-traffic retail can give you a boost in sales that you wouldn’t see online. Consider this when shopping for real estate.
Brick-and-Mortar Drawbacks
There’s one thing that’s hard to really grasp before you’re knee-deep in debt for your retail store: it’s expensive. You’ve got your rent, inventory, salaries and other overhead, and you have to sell enough product to cover all of these expenses each month. Even more if you actually want to turn profit. You lock yourself in to years of expenses once you sign that lease, so it’s a commitment you have to be willing to accept long-term.
Sometimes there are quirks about the location you choose that you don’t see initially, like a difficult-to-maneuver parking lot, or proximity to a business that drives yours away (tattoo parlor next to your doll shop?). These can cause you stress and financial troubles that force you to come up with a better solution sooner rather than later.
Whichever option you choose, do your homework on what kind of investment you need, as well as what locations would be ideal for your company.
Photo credit: bjearwicke.
Many small businesses assume they need a fancy web designer to have a website, as well as deep pockets. These days, that’s simply not the case. There are plenty of free or affordable resources that help you create your own website in minutes. All of these are either free, offer trials or are $10 or less a month.
1. Canada Get Your Business Online (Google)
Last year, Google launched a series of events to get small businesses online. With this program, you get a free website (the design process is super simple) as well as a free listing on Google Maps. You also get a .ca web address free for 12 months. There are also resources and videos to help you understand social media and internet marketing on the site.
2. SnapPages
I confess, I’m a bit partial to SnapPages, since I used it to create my website. I constantly get compliments on how professional it looks, but trust me: I’m no designer. To design your page, you use a template and drag and drop components (photos, text, social media links) where you want them. You can store files, use a calendar and set up a blog as well. They’re constantly adding additional features, which makes me happy.
3. Intuit
Intuit, makes of QuickBooks, offers a DIY web design platform as well. Their templates are professional looking, and they’ve also got that easy drag-and-drop functionality. As a customer, you get access to the Web Advisors, who can give you design tips or help you create your site.
4. Wix
If you’re looking for a visually appealing site, check out Wix. They offer free Flash templates you can customize to get the attention of your website visitors. According to the site, they’ve helped create more than 13 million websites. I’d recommend this site for an artist, designer or someone else who wants to use image-heavy design on their website.
5. WordPress
While WordPress templates were very popular a few years ago, since they’re free, we’re seeing more of these other types of content management systems (like the previous 4). Still WordPress shouldn’t be left off my list. It’s really a base for a blog, but because you can create any type of pages you want, you can also use them for a website. If you have a WordPress blog, it’s easy enough to expand that into several more pages to accompany your entire website. A simple search for “Wordpress themes” will give you ample free and cheap designs you can customize for your own site.
