Mediastreet
Tag

small business

Browsing
In News

Small Business Email Marketing Trends to Watch for In 2018

No Comments

By Dave Charest 

2017 is in the books.

But, as you know, a business owner’s work is never done.

Now it’s time to step into the year ahead and look for your next great opportunity.

Hopefully, the holiday season has allowed you to put enough wood in the shed, so to speak, so you can take a bit of time to reflect on the year and determine your next move.

Where should you focus your energy to make the most of your time?

First, consider how your customer has continued to evolve.

Today’s consumers expect your business to provide experiences tailored to their needs, interests, and habits.

52 percent of consumers say they’re likely to switch brands if a company doesn’t make an effort to personalize communications to them.

If your marketing messages aren’t relevant and easily read on mobile devices, you can expect consumers to move on.

It’s now more critical than ever to get the right message to the right person at the right time.

With that in mind, how can you expect email marketing to help you reach your goals in 2018?

Here are three areas you can expect to come to the forefront for small businesses and their use of email marketing.

1. Real insight from data to make better decisions

There’s no shortage of data available these days. Access isn’t the problem; it’s making sense of all that data in a way that’s beneficial to your business that’s important.

Recommended for YouWebcast, January 24th: Cold Email That Converts: Why Message-Persona Fit is the Key to Success

It also goes beyond opens and clicks to actions and interests. It allows you to understand who your best customers are and get carefully crafted messages to them based on what you know and what they do.

Expect to see email marketing providers like Constant Contact looking for ways to give you more proactive insights that allow you to make smarter decisions in addition to what’s available today.

2. More personalization for better results

When you think of personalization, you may think of adding a person’s name in an email. Yes, a person’s name is an essential element in any form of marketing. Beyond that what we’re talking about is timely and relevant messages. It’s about using the data to get more relevant information and offers to your customers.

Expect your email marketing provider to help you better segment your contacts and do so more efficiently.

3. Simple automation to save you time

Automation is where the two previous trends come together to allow you to do more business in your sleep.

For example, if someone expresses interest in a product or service by clicking a link in your email, you can automatically send a follow-up email or series of messages knowing that these emails will be relevant and lead you closer to a sale.

Click segmentation combined with an autoresponder series creates a potent one-two punch that works on autopilot so you can tend to other areas of your business.

Expect to see small businesses embracing this trend as email service providers make it even easier to do so.

But won’t automated messages make my marketing feel impersonal?

If you think relationships are still the backbone of your business, you’re right. You may be thinking that the methods above may feel impersonal, be too complicated to start or be too costly. The truth is just the opposite.

Using these methods above allows you to take the wow experiences you’re already creating for your customers, whether they be offline or online, and make them easy to extend in ways you could never do alone with your limited time. And the costs are a small fraction of the return you can expect from the time invested.

Are you ready to embrace these email marketing trends in 2018?

  • Real insight from data to make better decisions
  • More personalization for better results
  • Simple automation to save you time

By Dave Charest 

View full profile ›
Read more at https://www.business2community.com/email-marketing/small-business-email-marketing-trends-watch-2018-01989576

Sourced from Business 2 Community

Read More
By
In News

5 Brand Strategies Your Small Business Can Learn from Luxury Brands

No Comments

By Hanna Fitz,

For years luxury brands have mesmerized us with highly desirable products and services. They inspire us to dream bigger and leave us desiring more. You can learn so much about attracting ideal clients from these dream building brands.

I had a client (let’s call the brand was called “Arnanda”) this client had on their list On the outside, it seemed that this client was a success but this client was struggling financially to reach more high-end clients and make a profit.

On the other hand, another one of my clients from Italy, who had worked as a consultant for Salvatore Ferragamo and Roberto Cavalii had understood the power of branding and leveraging luxury positioning. This client was able to scale their business fast and grow internationally leveraging some of the most powerful strategies that luxury brands use to drive up desire and demand.

You can create a unique positioning for your brand in the market, by applying some of these proven strategies to attract your ideal clients, earn more for your services and grow your business.

Your brand does not have to be super high-end for these strategies to work. It can be applied to almost any business to leverage a unique positioning. Here are five powerful strategies from the luxury market that you can use today:

#1 Rethink Your Category

The temptation may be strong to follow the positioning strategies of all the other experts in your niche. However, you can learn so much from French Luxury Bakery Ladurée. Though a bakery, Ladurée has taken on the style: look and feel, of a beauty and fashion brand. They even refer to the brand as Maison Ladurée, a term typically used in luxury fashion brands.

This gives the brand a distinct style and has helped positioned it as more than just a bakery, it offers a lifestyle experience, true Parisian luxury and beauty.

US brand Apple has used the same strategy to differentiate it’s brand from other technology brands. Apple is all about creativity and style and with the appointment of former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts, as it’s Vice President of Retail, the brand is showing a stronger commitment to making tech, very fashionable.

Think outside the box borrowing the style and positioning strategy of brands that inspire you outside of your category to create an experience that is distinct, new and unforgettable for your ideal clients. This type of approach will help you create a unique selling proposition and also enable you to charge a premium price for your services, as your clients will not be able to get the same experience anywhere else. Remember a luxury brand does not seek to be different from its competitors, it seeks to be different, full stop.

#2 Distinct Brand Personality

During my time in Milan as a consultant, it really gave me a closer look behind the scenes of how luxury fashion brands, which are all competing for high-end clients are not competing for the same client. Versace is focused on the rock n roll, free spirit, rebellious and sexually provocative women, while Giorgio Armani is focused on the sophisticated yet understated woman. The brands had different values and styles. One brand is focused on “the dress on the woman” and the other, “the woman in the dress”.

Within the same market, the two brands were able to capture two different types of buyers by developing a distinct brand DNA that was reflected through their advertising, product design and of course carefully selecting which celebrities were wearing their product (Lady Gaga for Versace and Kate Blanchett for Armani).

As an expert, crafting a distinct brand DNA is key to sending a clear message of who your ideal client is and subconscious signals for them to find you. Everyone has a type and your clients will be the people who identify with your brand style and values.

#3 Compelling Visuals

Every luxury brand knows that creating a unique brand experience and attracting the right clients, comes down to aesthetics and triggering the right emotions through high-impact visuals. We connect with and remember the things we see. This is why Luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Dolce and Gabbana spend millions of dollars on in-store design, website, photography and video.

These are all touch points; the places and things that your ideal client will come in contact with when they encounter your brand. Luxury brand intelligently using codes within all the visual aspects of their brand to magnetize clients and create high perceived value.

These visuals turn non-essential products into must-haves. Have you ever noticed how no one is smiling in the Louis Vuitton print ads (go ahead and Google it)? That’s code for inaccessible and a level of unattainability that is part of the exclusive nature of luxury. There are ways of placing powerful emotional and sub-conscious codes that trigger the desire for your brand.

As an expert, imagine powerfully combining strong visuals with your very essential service of actually transforming people’s lives? You would be able to attract your clients with greater ease and create a more successful business.

One of my coaching clients recently posted this on our Facebook group about how her new brand image has impacted her business. It is worthwhile investing in creating a high-quality brand image because your ideal clients will be attracted to you.

#4 Craftsmanship and Exclusivity

Luxury brands pay attention to the details. What separates most high-end brands from the mass market is that the products are high quality, at times handmade by highly-skilled artisans and even customized to meet the client’s individual expectations.

In addition to being highly crafted, these brands create a “high lust factor” by limiting supply. Take Hermes for instance, you can’t just waltz into the store and buy a Birkin Bag, you need to be offered one by your sales rep after making a few other purchases in the store. You need to be a client and at times there is a six-month waiting list for their products.

In the coaching industry, while you are offering a service, there is an opportunity to create a differentiated experience through your product development by making some services very high touch and very exclusive. It is a good idea to create products that larger groups of people get access, so that many people get to know you and your work, but also create referral only or very exclusive high-end products that are available for a limited time or by application only.

#5 Unusual Partnership

Why on earth would luxury brands like Balmain, Kenzo and Alexander Wang collaborate with a fast fashion company like H & M? This is a strategy that many luxury brands have found useful for two reasons; to stay relevant and to reach younger upcoming buyers of luxury.

You see more than any other industry, luxury brands look to the future. Who will be buying our products in 5 or even 10 years and start creating the exposure to the brand, so that these new buyers can move through the funnel of their more high-end lines. It’s like wetting their appetite, because once you go luxury you never go back.

I helped a luxury award-winning hotel create a strategic partnership with a luxury jewelry company because they were serving the same clients even though they were operating in different industries.

As an expert, you can find unusual collaborations that can create maximum exposure for your brand to reach your ideal clients and the people who will become your client in the future. Try to think outside of the box and think about other brands outside your own industry that your clients are using or following, and build new usual relationships that both you and your partners can benefit from.

If you would like to learn more on how to use compelling luxury strategies to get more high-end clients, watch my free masterclass video training, “Create Your High-end Brand Using These 5 Luxury Brand Strategies.”

Click here to watch this free training.

By Hanna Fitz,

Sourced from Huffington Post

Read More
By
In News

Small Businesses Say Getting Fans and Followers on Social Media is a Struggle

No Comments

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Canadian company Little Dragon Media recently surveyed 500 small business owners and asked: “What part of your company’s digital marketing do you struggle with the most?” The survey discovered that “Getting fans and followers on social media” was the most popular response, overthrowing SEO.

Female business owners struggle with social media, while their male counterparts struggle with SEO more.

“The results were a bit surprising to me,” states Amine Rahal, CEO of Little Dragon Media. “When we launched the survey, I assumed that most businesses would choose SEO as being the hardest, since it can take years to rank high organically on search engines, especially in competitive niches.”

“Ranking high on search engines” was the second most popular option, measuring at 26.2%. Blogging came in third at 19.4%.

Reputation management swept in fourth swallowing up 13.4% of the survey pie, and “Finding a trustworthy agency to help us” came in last place measuring at 11%, suggesting that this was a non-issue for many businesses.

Social media marketing’s lead over SEO signals that small business owners today highly value social media community development. They also show signs of struggle in efforts to figure out how to get the best results when compared to SEO, an established digital marketing service which is now also influenced by social media community development.

According to Rahal, survey results show how social media has swept into the forefront of the overall digital marketing landscape.

Says survey moderator Monica Guan, “In the current digital era, having a strong social media presence and ranking on Google are the best and low-cost ways to reach your local audience. Just by the fact that business owners are struggling with these aspects show that they do realise the importance of these factors to their business, but may not have the know-how to succeed in these areas.”

55.7% female small business owners report social media community development being the most difficult struggle when compared to their male counterparts who reported at 44.3%.

Guan says, “Female business owners may care more for the social media of their business and sees it as a priority that needs to be improved on. This shows that not only do many business owners require more education about how to use their social media and gain more fans and followers, but more education to male business owners on the importance of social media to their business.”

The full survey is here.

 

 

 

Read More
By
In News

5 Strategies for Getting Press for Your Small Business

No Comments

By Rich Kahn.

Small business owners have a lot on their plate. Oftentimes they’re doing it all — ordering inventory, responding to customers, managing employees. Marketing their company is the last thing on their mind. And with a smaller budget than large corporations, hiring a PR firm to do the legwork isn’t always feasible.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t still get press for their small business. Here are five strategies to easily incorporate into your small business’ daily routine. And the best part: they won’t break the bank.

1. “Newsjack” relevant breaking news

Always keep an eye out for breaking news that is relevant to your business. You never know when an opportunity to “newsjack” may arise. For example, perhaps there’s an impending snowstorm, and Channel 6 is looking for a local plowing company to give viewers some wintry weather safety tips.

For no cost at all, you can lend your expertise while getting press for your business.

To seize opportunities like these, sign up for Google Alerts for keywords related to your business. When you get an alert for a relevant article, reach out to the reporter and offer your expertise. Be sure to include the caveat that if they don’t need you as a source now, to keep you in mind for future stories.

2. Be a source on PR Newswire

PR Newswire offers journalists a place to find sources and experts. Reporters who need to speak with an expert (like you) on a subject, can submit a media query or search PR Newswire’s experts database.

Only respond to the queries that interest are relevant to you. If you’re selected as a source, you may be rewarded with potential press in the form of direct quotes, mentions, sometimes even a feature article.

3. Connect with industry influencers

Influencer marketing can garner you a lot of positive exposure. But it only works when influencers are genuine advocates of your brand. Younger audiences like Millennials and Generation Z can detect when something is fake. And there’s nothing they dislike more than inauthentic brands.

Social media is an efficient way to connect with industry influencers. Search relevant hashtags and don’t forget to comb through your existing followers. Look for those influencers who truly love your brand, ones that are already raving about it.

However, influencers do come at a cost. If certain influencers are out of your price range, consider using micro-influencers, which are just as powerful, but for a lesser cost.

4. Start a blog

Increase your brand exposure by starting a company blog. Blogging is a great way to showcase your expertise and drive traffic to your site. And you never know when the press might read an article of yours and want to feature it in the news.

Try to blog at least twice a week. If you’re unable to produce fresh content on a regular basis, consider recruiting guest bloggers to write for your site. Another tip: focus on creating evergreen content, timeless blog posts that will remain relevant. When you’re pressed for time and need to post a new blog, evergreen content can be republished in a pinch.

5. Leverage social media

Once you’ve got content, you’ll want to leverage it on social media. Share it on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, any place where your target audience will want to read it. Then take it a step further and engage with your audience. Address any questions they might have about the piece.

Also share others’ posts, too. Not only will you build a rapport with your industry colleagues (and audience), you’ll be boosting your credibility as a thought-leader, too.

Image credit: Shutterstock

By Rich Kahn.

Sourced from Entrepreneur

Read More
By
In News

Too Much Social Media Advertising can Hurt Sales. Yikes!

2 Comments

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Social media marketing is currently a very popular practice for businesses. But it isn’t all success and roses. A recent Temple study shows that businesses must find a proper balance in order to avoid negative results. So for businesses who currently rely on social media marketing to attract new customers, listen up.

While the potential for social media marketing seems almost limitless, a study led by Ph.D. candidate Shuting Wang and senior associate dean of research Paul Pavlou reveals the exact opposite. The Temple professionals recently conducted a study which looked to determine the specific value of social media marketing in relation to data from WeChat and a Chinese shoe retailer.

The study revealed that while social media advertising had a positive impact on increasing customer sales in the short term, it actually created a negative impact on the business in the long term.

When looking at the specific figures, the business witnessed a 5% increase in sales on the same day following a social media post. However, this same post increased the chance that customers would unfollow the business by 300%. Within five months, the retailer experienced a 5% decreased in sales paired with a 20% loss of online followers within a year.

With regard to these findings, Shuting Wang notes that people often “get annoyed” by a company’s post in the long term compared to the short term. “In that case, they will unfollow, which will lead to a long-term decrease in purchases,” Wang said.

sales, marketing, social media, online sales, social media marketing

Researcher Paul Pavlou believes this phenomenon can be contributed to the way in which companies often “over-do” social media.

“They see that the more posts they put out there, the more sales they’re going to see,” Pavlou notes. “Companies should be more careful with this and focus more on their long-term goals. Social media marketing is so quick, so immediate that companies say, ‘Well, let me leverage this as much as possible in the short term,’ and they may actually miss the big picture.”

While the study findings support the idea that too much social media advertising can hurt a company’s sales production, there are contextual factors which also play a role. Professor Paul Greenwood notes that these factors include, “What time of day it is, and where people are located.” In addition, the professor notes that people in large cities “Unfollow a lot faster…and if you post during rush hour, people unfollow a lot faster, but if you post at off-peak hours or smaller locations, that effect seems to go away.”

While the full extent of social media marketing trends have yet to be identified, Greenwood believes that future research will look to address whether dissatisfied customers go to competing firms or simply stop purchasing in general. This information will drastically help businesses fine-tune their social media strategies going forward.

While the Temple study revealed the potentially harmful effects of social media advertising, it is important to note this only took place when attempting to sell products. Businesses who have a balanced social media approach, or one which incorporates potential sales with public relations, are much more likely to create productive customer relationships in the long run.

For some interesting case studies on this topic, click here.

 

 

Read More
By
In News

Traditional Forms of Media Coverage Still Valued Over Advertising

No Comments

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

In an age where digital media is constantly changing, public relations practitioners and business professionals still see the benefits of traditional media coverage. This is according to study conducted by researchers at the University of Georgia.

The study finds those who use news sources to convey certain information about their products prefer independent media coverage.

Lynne Sallot is a professor of public relations of Journalism and Mass Communication. She says, “We have this intuitive idea that getting our messages covered by the news media makes those messages more credible than when we put them out there ourselves. Everyone believes this, but it’s been difficult to prove it.”

Independent media coverage is a more traditional form of news content like a TV broadcast, newspaper article or radio show, whereas more controlled sources of media are paid media such as advertisements or an organisation’s own website.

Pauline Howes is an associate professor of communications, and conducted the research. She says, “When asked directly, public relations practitioners and businesspeople in this study said they see independent media coverage as more credible than controlled, or paid, media. This seems to support the value of news coverage as part of a communications plan.

“Both types of communication are used by businesspeople, but an independent source may be viewed by audiences as having more credibility because it is not controlled or influenced by the subject of a story.”

When determining what goes into a business’s story, the editors and producers behind these independent news sources have no vested interest in the company or its products.

Differing from past experimental studies, this research looked at real world perceptions by interviewing public relation practitioners as well as business professionals.

Says Sallot, “There is some truth that to some audiences, messages covered by the media are more important. Until now, most of the research has suggested that that’s not true.”

Because of the conducted interviews, Howes and Sallot were able to get more personal feedback from those in the field. This study supported the belief that corporate/ PR messages that are carried by news media do have enhanced news credibility.

 

 

Read More
By
In News

8 Tips to Take Your Website from Meh to Yay!

No Comments

Here are some website redesign pointers for growing small and medium-sized businesses

By MediaStreet Staff Writers

Says Ufuoma Otu of Take Culture Media, “Whether you plan to redesign your website in-house or source it externally, play an active role in managing the process. This is the first tip we give to growing small and medium-sized businesses. The initiative you display on the front end and the attention you give to communicating the site’s vision early on will help drive momentum on your project and ultimately help make it successful.”

 

Other tips include:

Know what you want.

This helps saves a lot of time, effort, revisions, and increases the likelihood of you and your developers creating a finished product your team is happy with for a long time. Well, until it’s time to redesign your website – again!

Carve out time to peruse various websites you like, figure out various elements of them you can integrate into your site to enhance your users’ experience.

Commit to an effective review process.

The website redesign process is only as complicated as you and your team make it. Yes, the process may vary based on the size of the website, company or project it’s being built or redesigned for. Will you communicate changes primarily – by phone, email, in-person meetings? Who are the stakeholders who will green light progress and changes? For example, in smaller companies, the C-suite is more accessible and will play a more active role. In larger organisations, department heads may wield more influence on changes and updates to be made.

Usability is king.

It used to be content is king – it still is. So is usability. Welcome to the user experience kingdom. Always think of how your users will interact with your site. Envision this, test it, implement, and test again – on different devices and platforms. The general rule of thumb is: use fewer words, more photos or graphics (depending on your industry), and intuitive navigation. The point is to make the user experience as smooth as possible. Keep testing until you go live.

Be flexible.

Stick to your process – yes. But on the flip side of that, be flexible. Creating or redesigning a site is a dynamic process that happens in real-time and in tandem with changing needs, market changes, and other factors that are not always within your team’s control. Provide vision and guidance, but be open to your team’s interpretation of the vision expressed.

Honour the creative process.

It is a creative endeavour; recognise it as such and not simply as a to-do item on your list. Or you can, but you may end up with a site that lacks essence. Lead with praise before offering constructive criticism, and the next iteration of the site could very well knock your socks off.

Make it a visual canvas.

The most stunning websites walk the fine line between eye-catching colours and white space. This makes them visually appealing but makes the content easy on the eye. Nowadays we look at screens all day long, so adopt an elegant site design that is simple and users will be glad to use – and even simply admire.

Share it.

What good is the most well-designed website no one knows about? Once you finally have the website you are proud of, share it! Let everyone in your organisation know about it. Don’t forget your clients, social media community, and collateral materials. And remember to update your relevant keywords on search engines.

 

Read More
By