For many businesses, the process of choosing and administering a health insurance benefits program is daunting. They often turn to benefits brokers to help them select and implement plans.
Social media sites can be incredibly useful. Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and all the rest have created new means of communication and enabled companies to connect organically with users whose interests are already vetted.
That said, they can also be destructive. The difference lies in the way you use them:
If you publish an article on your own website, tweet about it, and post a link on Facebook, that’s fantastic. If you post an article as a Facebook note and then share it, your marketing and outreach are headed for a crash-and-burn moment.
We all hate getting spam mail so it’s hard to admit that email advertising is effective, but study after study show that it’s a low-cost method of obtaining new customers and generating repeat clients. According to SalesForce.com, the average return on investment (ROI) for every $1 devoted to an email-marketing campaign is $44.25.
That’s a very revealing statistic considering that sending an email is absolutely free. Unlike physical mailers, radio ads, print media and every other popular form of marketing, email advertising is readily available to small businesses.
Working remotely or from home, whether this is on an ad-hoc basis or as a regular occurrence, can allow people the scope to undertake their roles to their very best advantage. People quickly learn how best to shape and adapt their hectic schedules and workload. I know that having the flexibility to work from home has benefitted my business. My best designs and creative thoughts have come when sitting on my sofa with no distractions.
The normal staff meeting has become a colossal waste of time. No surprise, but a staff meeting is boring and even a dreaded part of the “9 to 5” world. Many consider staff meetings (or team meetings) a practical alternative to work. They feign interest and look at the gatherings as a place to jot down their grocery list or refine their drawing skills. All because there is too little thought invested in the planning or the execution of the meeting.
In business the results you get can be “relatively” proportionate to the effort you put in. So far so good, but a problem arises when people don’t do anything or do the wrong thing to try and get results.
Far too often people will play the blame game. “I tried this to get more business happening and it didn’t work and the same with that, and that and on and on … nothing’s working!”
When your auto repair company sends you a coupon for a discount on an oil change, or your local coffee shop rewards you with a free cup of coffee every tenth time you buy, you're seeing a promotional program at work.
A promotion is a planned strategy for increasing sales over a short period. A promotion adds value to the product or service offered. It stimulates sales for reasons other than the product's inherent benefits.
Whether you're a partner in a consulting firm, a contractor or electrician, or CEO of an international conglomerate, database marketing is crucial for your success.
Do you have a specific plan for addressing loyalty to your current customers and clients?
Did you know that if you improve your customer retention by just 5%, you are also adding 5% to your growth rate? That is due to the high costs of closing new business vs. the profitability of loyal customers spending more money and/or referring you new business.
These days, almost every business checks Facebook as part of their applicant screening process. And it turns out many employers are misreading the information they glean from this social media giant.
A new study from North Carolina State University shows that many organizations may have a fundamental misunderstanding of online behavior and, as a result, may be eliminating desirable job candidates.
An employee handbook lays the groundwork for how a business runs from day to day. If your handbook isn’t used or updated consistently, your business may not be running as efficiently as possible and be at high risk for costly employee relations issues.
Almost everyone who dreams of starting their own business, knows they need to create a business plan. However, that’s often where many people stop. When you created your business plan, what did you do with it? You actually have the basis for the next step, which is creating your marketing plan. Without the plan of how you are going to market your business, the business plan is just an empty jumble of words speaking of dreams and desires. The marketing plan takes those dreams and creates a strategy for how to make them come true.
In my business, with Social Media being an integral part of Marketing and Business Development, I am often questioned on the role it plays when employees have access to Social Media while working.
I am not an HR Professional, however, there are certain aspects of Marketing that often overlap with Human Resources and many policies need to be integrated into an Employee Handbook which are essential to the development of the business.
Do you really know what your employees are posting on the Internet?
We’ve all heard about the “blurb.” It’s that short phrase you use to describe what you do for a living. Often it’s the first and, maybe if handled incorrectly, the last, contact you’ll have when meeting a potential client. It’s more important than your name when introducing yourself. When it comes to creating a blurb to describe what you do, think benefits. Most people are interested in what’s in it for them. Also, try to use a blurb that offers an open-ended question. Those are the kind where a simple “yes” or “no” isn’t going to cut it. It should beg for more info.
Here's an idea — get with your network of friends, relatives and neighbors and put them to work for you. I don't mean putting them on the payroll. I mean tapping into them as a referral source.
Wouldn't it be nice if effective small business marketing and self-promotion practices felt natural and authentic? If you truly care about your customers, self-promotion deserves your attention.
Many negative connotations typically come to mind when thinking about self-promotion, all of which keep many people from feeling comfortable and confident when talking about themselves. You’ve heard all the name-calling: conceited, show-off, braggart, arrogant, egotistical.
Today’s fast-paced, technological world requires more in developing a solid business plan than ever before. Twenty years ago, a website was a non-existent factor in developing a marketing plan for your small business. Ten years ago, your marketing plan required you to have a website to ensure you had a web presence for your small business. Today, if you are merely planning on a website as stating you have a web presence, your marketing plan is as effective as a twenty year old marketing plan that had no website at all.
Today’s world provides website owners with plenty of options when it comes to marketing their website. Traditional means of advertising, word-of-mouth, and networking still apply, but in today’s technological world, social media has opened many more options in getting websites visible on the internet.
Your website is created! Looks great! Now what? Too often when a small-sized company or an individual creates a website for their business, they get caught up in the moment of having a great looking website. But if no one is finding or visiting your website, what good is it?
Some websites fail in that a lot was put into the designing and planning of the look and feel of the site, but no planning was developed into getting traffic created for the website.
Now that you’ve got a great looking website, how do you go about driving new traffic to it? After all, it doesn’t matter what your website looks like if no one knows how to find you. Often times, driving web traffic to a website is overlooked in the planning and developing of a new site. Website traffic is a pivotal piece to your website. Should you be creating an SEO strategy along with the technical development of your website?
