Your business website is your online storefront, and the first impression you offer visiting and prospective clients. Obviously, it’s of utmost importance that your site is one that invites clients to visit and one they enjoy returning to. Here are my essential elements to include in your small business website. Functional and Easy to Use Your website MUST be easy to navigate and use and, of course, needs to be fully functional. Your shopping carts need to work and be free of bugs, links need to work, and your contact forms must send messages to the right place. Additionally, if…
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As entrepreneurs, we put enormous amounts of time, energy, and money into creating and building our businesses and creating a positive brand reputation. So why does our business sometimes struggle or experience unexpected dry spells? If you’ve stopped receiving inquiries from prospects and repeat business from existing clients, your brand reputation may be to blame. Despite our hard work and daily toil, even one bad review or negative comment on a blog can prove very detrimental to our reputation. Brand Reputation is Important As amazing as it seems that one or two pieces of negative information online or via word…
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Staying in touch with your clients via email marketing tools ensures that you are always top of mind. Email marketing includes every email sent to build a relationship with your audience. There are many ways that email marketing tools can help your small business maintain professional, profitable contact with clients. At Jennie Lyon Virtual Assistant Services, we are very familiar with a handful of great email marketing applications. The following are the 5 software we use when partnering with clients on email marketing. [Tweet “Email marketing includes every email sent to a customer or potential client.”] 1. MadMimi MadMimi is a…
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If your small business isn’t active on social networking sites, it should be! Active participation in social networking sites draws more traffic to your website, increases sales, deepens trust in your brand, and provides almost endless networking opportunities. Social networking is more than just Facebook; successful businesses also need professional, active profiles (that they post to at least once daily with a combination of visual content, text posts, conversational links, and referrals) on Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. Depending on your brand and client base, you may also consider accounts with Instagram and YouTube, as well. If you are not…
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“Branding”, a term that once meant simply stamping your business logo on everything, has evolved into the process of building a company’s identity and personality. While branding still involves developing a name and symbol or design that sets your business apart from the rest, it is so much more than that. Effective, strategic branding gives you an advantage over competitors and makes it possible for your company to target markets as tight or broad as you like. Because branding is so foundational to success, I thought I would offer a few more tips for creating a strong brand that I’ve…
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You’ve worked so, so hard to get clients—now it’s time to do everything in your power to keep them! Keeping clients is much less expensive than getting new ones, and client loyalty strengthens business. In addition, word of mouth, testimonials, and referrals are still some of the best methods to attract new clients who want your products or services. What this all adds up to is that it’s important, from time to time, to show your existing clients you appreciate them. I hope that you are already providing exceptional, personalized service and have great client relations, but it’s also important…
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Like most women, you have probably heard that you can’t do it all—and you probably try to anyway. It is easy to run ragged trying to juggle your business, social life, family, and household. Remember, though, that you are your company’s most valuable asset! Successfully managing all aspects of your life requires balance and prioritizing self-care. Healthy habits help us to be more effective in both business and life. When we are healthy and balanced, we can “do more”—and in less time (which is always the goal). Here are 5 healthy habits for women in business. 1. Healthy Diet and…
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More and more small businesses these days are home-based or physically scaled down, operating out of a small office with minimal equipment. Additionally, more businesses start with modest budgets and aim to cut overhead costs in order to develop into successful startups more quickly. Because small businesses still need a team to operate, the cost-effective, simple solution is to partner with a virtual team of workers instead of staffing an office with salaried employees, which requires a bigger office rental, bulkier payroll, and an HR department—to name a few things. Even though virtual support teams are non-traditional (though they are…
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Small businesses need to utilize these digital marketing tips—period! In the days before the internet, companies spent huge sums on visual campaigns. Nowadays, this type of marketing is not only old-fashioned and expensive but becoming irrelevant, too. The majority of consumers read, shop, and communicate on their devices. The average adult’s attention span is around 6-8 seconds, so you have to grab their attention quickly. Today’s small business owners can benefit from a wide, growing variety of platforms to market their businesses. You now have the ability to learn so much more about your target audience and market specifically to…
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I have been a small business owner for a long time and have partnered with dozens of other successful entrepreneurs. Through my own personal experience building my company, as well as helping the successful people I partner with, I have learned a few things about successful small business branding. Here are 4 branding tips that every entrepreneur can use. 1. Know Your NicheUnderstanding your target market is absolutely key to knowing how to market to them. In today’s economy, successful marketing means that a brand is more than a fancy logo or enticing slogan; in order to engage clients businesses must…
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