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Will Google AdWords work for my small business?
February 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Pay Per-Click or PPC is one awesome way to drive traffic to a particular site. But will PPC work for all small businesses? Here is what I think in 90 seconds.
Go Daddy Hosting Down? What we learned.
September 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I first learned of the attack yesterday when I received an email stating my DNS settings had changed. In a panic I signed in to my website only to find that this was not a site issue, but a hosting issue. I quickly went to Google and found no post about a Go Daddy Hack. I saw many post on facebook and twitter about sites being down due to their ISP.
Post after post I begin to see how many people were exposed to this issue, I hoped our site’s were down due to system upgrade gone wrong; I learned shortly it was due a hacker running havoc. In an effort to express my frustration I created a Blogger site (mine was down) with my story and links to other articles around the web.
Well the issue caused more problems, like email not working, I decided to see what I could learn from the situation. I came up with two big lessons:
1. Back up your website, imagine if we lost our site content? I just backed up this weekend so I wasn’t sweating it so much.
2. Use a different provider for your domain name and hosting service. The truth is this, the hack was big enough to cause issues with all Go Daddy services, but this could prevent some future headaches.
After thinking about it today I’m switiching, I’ve heard some good things about:
- Host Gator (Enter Coupon Code MovefromGoDaddy and save $9.94)
- WebSynthesis (More Expensive, Only for WordPress super fast and secure)
*Disclosure links may be affiliate links, we only recommend companies we do business with
3 Way’s a Marketing Agency Can Help Small Business Owners
August 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment
At NM Small Biz we are dedicated to your companies success. Recently we took on a client who was having problems getting traffic to his site.
We talked about optimizing his webpage and leveraging Google to send him some traffic. Today we will begin driving traffic via the social web and soon from search via Google.
So can’t anybody do this on their own? Yes, but here is a little of what our Marketing Agency can help with:
-Budget: by leveraging our Copy Writing skills and relationship with Google we can squeeze every penny out of every dollar. Sometimes your are paying $3 for each click! We usually drive that cost down to $1! (That’s basically getting two visitors free).
-Direction: advertising and online marketing need Goals! Understanding what the purpose of your campaign is important! ( I often ask what the goal of something is,I am met with a blank stare. Increase sales is the end goal, but what’s the plan to get there)?
-Measurement: focusing your marketing efforts online provides the ability to track and test everything. We can track where traffic is coming from, where it went on your site and how people actually found your sales page. This helps us do one thing “More of what’s working, less of what’s not”.
There are many more benefits to using a Marketing Agency like NM Small Biz, but I thought these three were a good place to start.
If you would like to learn more about our packages click here
How to use a Simple Sales Funnel (Includes free tool download)
July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment
First Check out video on the free Sales Funnel Download Tool
For more information about our services Click Here
The Best of NM Small Biz 2012
July 13, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Best Post through the first Half of 2012
Here is a collection of the most popular post of 2012, just in case you missed the awesomeness:
3 Ways to Use the New Facebook Timeline for your Small Business Page
How to Sell on Social Media
Swim Like A Duck
Five Free Ways to Market Your Small Business Online
How Coupon Conditioning is Killing your Small Business. Part Two of Two.
Let me know which was your favorite!
How Coupon Conditioning is Killing your Small Business. Part Two of Two.
July 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
How Coupon Conditioning is Killing your Small Business Part Two
In my last article I introduced a concept I call Coupon Conditioning, I also introduced a salon practicing Coupon Conditioning and today I give you my solution.
I enjoy receiving my Groupon emails daily, don’t you? Ever notice how salons are always running promotions? That’s why I choose them in the example above. Here is one way to leverage a service like Groupon in your marketing system:
A salon runs a Groupon offering 50% off a Hair Cut and Style, but also adds a hair wash and condition, style and style consultation. The business normally charges $120 for the haircut and dye, $25 for the wash and condition, $25 for the style and $25 for the style consultation. The total normal cost is $195; Groupon cost is 50% or $97.50. This salon uses Facebook to run weekly promotions. The promotions vary with things like a Free $5 Starbucks gift card to the next 5 people who call and make an appointment and mention they saw the Facebook offer. The salon has signage in the building promoting Facebook and the special offers. In the initial visit the customer’s information is taken and added to a mailing list. The customer is also given a loyalty card which offers a free haircut after 11 visits, and offered credit for two visits if they set-up a follow-up appointment to maintain their new style. A mailer is sent the next day thanking them for their business and includes 3 referral cards to pass out if they liked the service. Business is good.
Big difference here to the previous business right? You see they found a way to increase traffic and get more money for the Groupon deal by assigning value to the package. These items didn’t cost much more money and really do add value, so you can ask for more money. (Warning only assign value to items that actually enhance the experience, otherwise you come off as a nickel and dime biz, you know charging for everything).
Instead of discounting their services on social media, they use a give away costing $25 a week or $100 a month for people who make an appointment. This allows the business to leverage social media while not losing value to the business. The first business didn’t spend any money upfront for social media; they only discounted the service, which ends up costing the business more money after only a few customers.
The loyalty card is used to help with follow-up business. The offer to get credit for two visits cost the company nothing and is used as a tool to close the sale right now. The mailer is used to leverage word of mouth and cost only for the letter, the three cards and postage. I already tell people about businesses I love for free, why not encourage that behavior?
The bottom line: Coupon Conditioning causes your business to devalue your services/products, and it slowly kills your business too. Next time you create a special offer, look to building a package or add-ons to increase value so you don’t have to offer deep discounts to get business.
How Coupon Conditioning is Killing your Small Business. Part One of Two.
July 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
How Coupon Conditioning is Killing your Small Business. Part One of Two
Today business is tough, even tougher than before. So how does a small business grow its sales? Today with so many discount services out there it’s easy to jump on the “Discounting” bandwagon. It’s simple right; sign up with a service like Groupon, Living Social, etc, begin to bring in sales. Fact: These services have a lot of reach and ability to make your cash register ring. When done correctly these service types can cause a huge influx of sales and even return customers if you do it right, but that’s another article.
Check out this scenario to help me illustrate what I call Coupon Conditioning:
A salon uses a discounting service like Groupon for a Haircut and Dye job, we’ll say the offer is for 50% off. The normal price is $120 so the deal is for $60. This causes a huge spike in business and things seem to be going well. They also use Facebook to run promotions that include deep discounts on the same items twice a month every first and third Friday. Once a customer comes in for the first time they collect their information and add them to the mailing list. Then the next day after their initial visit a mailer is sent offering 40% off their next visit.
This seems like a great marketing system that has been installed. It has a way to reach and attract new customers, uses social media to drive more traffic, and even have a follow-up system in place to help with repeat business. Let’s let the story continue:
Three months after installing this new marketing system something begins to happen, there are warm bodies in the business but the business is not making more money than before the new marketing system was installed and it seems you are working harder than before too! You notice most transactions are discounted and the business is very slow the second and fourth weekends every month. It is decided you need more business the second and fourth weekend and now run a weekly promotion with the same deep discounts. After six months you have fallen behind, with an increase cost in raw products and less revenue regardless of any promotion or pricing change you try. What happened? The customers of this business were conditioned to never pay full price. Coupon Conditioning is to blame.
Wow what a powerful idea! You see at first it seems that this is an awesome marketing machine and it’s driving new business, but later this model got the business in trouble. Coupon Conditioning your customers causes you to decrease the value you bring to their lives. They never expect to pay full price because they simply have to wait a short time before they can receive deep discounts. Now I’m not saying you should never offer deep discounts, we built marketing plans for free, just make sure your marketing system moves you out of this space quickly.
So how can we fix this? Well the obvious answer is don’t build your marketing system only around price, but in today’s world you may need to leverage a service like Groupon now and than. My next article gives you my suggestion, but what would you do this fix this?
Hold On To What You’ve Got©
June 11, 2012 by 1 Comment
Hold On To What You’ve Got©
A bird in the hand is….
In recent months I have had several business owners ask me about acquiring new business. Don’t we all love getting new clients, and certainly it is necessary, not only to grow but to maintain the status quo. However, looking to, working at, and focusing on acquiring new clients may be a little short sighted. Feed the fish you already have or they will die.
DO NOT constantly go to your pool of clients trying to sell them over & over. Before long they will, and rightfully so come to believe that you only regard them as a revenue source and nothing more. They will look to replace you; you will ask yourself “what happened, I was soooo good to them…” when actually, you were trying to be soooo good to yourself. If you are a Network Marketer this is also true, perhaps you are not trying to sell your down line anything, but calls to let them know that their performance is lacking has the same affect.
Often as business owners we forget to give the same time and attention to our regular clients as we do to getting a new one. This is a mistake. Clients and customers need to know that they are appreciated, and you are the one to let them know that. Never, never take for granted they know that they are appreciated, never.
Ignoring your clients/customers or taking them for granted can kill all the hard work and expense you incurred to get them in the first place. What is important is for you to continue to nurture your relationship, to let them know that you are there for them, and that they should consider you a resource. You can do this even if they are 4 thousand miles away.
Don’t get me wrong, SELL-SELL-SELL, that’s my mantra, with one exception, do not; sell at the expense of your relationship with, your current client, or customer. You do not want to chase them away. There is a fine line between attentiveness and badgering.
Know this, it does not matter what business you are in. Bookkeepers, Accountants, Auto Body Repairs, Clothing Stores, MLM businesses, all business have a client of some sort and that client must, at all costs be taken care of to the very best of you ability. If you do not know how to take care of them get some help to develop a process, for if you don’t someone else will
Find ways to provide added value to them. Send articles that may be relevant to their business, or send web links. Send notices on law changes that affect business owners, and any piece of trivia that is just plain interesting. Even put notes on the face of an invoice such as “thank you for your business”. Let them know in your communication that you are always available to them should they every have any questions on anything (you can always send them to someone that would have the answer) to contact you. You are now a resource for them.
Special note to MLM’ers-Network Marketers. There are two primary ways to make money within this business model. Sell your product or service and recruit new business partners. If selling your product is your main focus, then all I have said above applies (but be sure to get some SALES training to understand what sales is and is not and why people buy). If you primary interest is developing a team (down line) then all I have said above applies for they are now your customer/client/partner etc. If you leave a new partner alone it is as if you have abandoned them. Without the security of their up line that they have made the right decision to join the group, without the encouragement to forge ahead despite the difficulties they are facing, they will leave you, and all that effort you put into gaining a new partner just went out the window, what a waste. Where is the true value in you partner, the payment for recruiting them, or the life long income they could produce for you?
As a side note, keeping a client costs less money that acquiring a new one. A client has a monetary value both immediate and long term. Good Will towards your clients can not be defined in terms of a dollar value, but, if you do not provide it, someone else, like me will.
Coach Michael Loewenthal of Albuquerque NM is a ‘Main Street’ Coach,helping businesses overcome obstacles through coaching, process development, marketing plans, and training (sales, cust’ svc. etc) and how to PROPERLY run a business. Professional Speaker-Trainer, Learn More About the Business Coach
3 Awesome Business Networking Events to Jump Start Your Month
June 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Three Awesome Business Networking Events to Jump Start Your Month
It’s the beginning of the month and I thought I would suggest 3 networking events to attend this week in the Albuquerque Area. I plan to attend each event, make new contacts and than follow-up with every new contact for the next couple of weeks. Looking for more tips? Try these 3 Networking Tips from last month’s post.
Exhib-it B2B Expo Thursday, June 7th 5:00pm-8:00pm
Hosted by DJ Heckess and Exhibit this event looks to be a huge opportunity to meet local business owners. This event comes only once a year and presents two different opportunities, first there will be businesses who purchased tables and are there to show their services/products, these people maybe great partners for you. The second group of people are, the business owners walking around at the expo. Remember to shake as many hands as possible. (I got that tip from the Business Coach, Michael Loewenthal) Hope to see you there! You can get tickets for $15 at the door if you didn’t pre-register.
ABQ West Free Business Networking Event Wednesday, June 6th 5:30pm-7:30pm.
This is the best Networking Party in Albuquerque! Every month I meet many great contacts at this event! This free event is one you should put on your calendar every month. Last month I met an awesome photographer who helped take pictures at the Go Local Community Expo.
Rio Rancho Chamber Visionaries Wednesday, June 6th 8:00am-9:00am
The Visionaries meet twice a month and are community focused, plus they get results! Why should you attend this week’s event? We will be discussing the upcoming Maui Money Event to benefit Storehouse West Food Pantry and Roadrunner Food Bank of New Mexico. This one is free and includes breakfast.
Wow all that and it’s only the first week of June! I hope your business hits the ground running at these events! Want to start marketing your business today? Here are some free online marketing tips.
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