Today’s small businesses are adept at using online tools such as email newsletters and surveys to help develop strong relationships with their customers. While these tools can enable two-way communications, face-to-face interactions can be an effective way to build and instill trust in these relationships. It’s that sense of community and interaction that in-person events provide when communicating directly with customers.
Hosting events and promoting them through an online service is a great place to start. Small businesses and organizations have many options to consider when looking for the best way to promote their events. Free online RSVP services offer great ways to invite friends and relatives to a casual engagement, but businesses need a more professional service when marketing their events.…
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As we prepare for the height of the holiday season, one in which spending is predicted to be lukewarm at best, local businesses can get smart by planning and implementing thoughtful marketing campaigns that provide consumers relief where they need it most: their wallets. With Black Friday quickly approaching, time is of the essence to get a plan in place and begin implementing it.
Staff reductions are typical targets for controlling costs in tough economic times. This can be particularly challenging as you attempt to balance responsible fiscal management with fluctuating sales while maintaining customer expectations for quality, support, and customer service. The answer to this dilemma involves embracing a return to basics, i.e., examining your business processes and understanding the role they play in getting your product or service out the door.
If you are a baby boomer like I am, you probably remember the 60s television show, Bewitched. Mrs. Kravitz was the busybody next-door neighbor of the sitcom’s main characters, Darren and Samantha Stevens. Mrs. Kravitz was extremely nosy; always peeking through the curtains to see what was going on at the Stevens’ home. If there was anything strange activity or unusual behavior, she knew about it (Samantha practiced witchcraft, so strange or unusual was an understatement.) The point is, she was extremely observant and clearly saw the goings-on where no one else did.
I have always tried to do things for my email newsletter list to reduce opt-outs and create long term subscribers. I have people on my first email list for 3,4,5 years. Getting email newsletter subscribers is not that hard. Keeping them is yet another thing. These five worked really well for me:
Many small businesses don’t have the time or resources to adequately monitor their own financial status, no less the ability to screen the finances of their partners, vendors, suppliers or customers. However, if SMB CEOs take away one thing from the current recession – it should be a clear understanding of how important it is to have a transparent view of their customers’ financial situation.
Twitter has not only received quite a bit of press in the past year, but it has also become an important tool for many trying to market their business, product or personal brand. Of course, people and businesses alike are doing this with a varying degree of success and some have a much better handle on the whole social media for marketing thing than others. Here are a few tips to improve your Twitter experience if you’re floundering or if you’re not seeing the results that you had hoped.
