Grow Your Business in 2011

The New Year is just about on us. So ask yourself, “What will I do to retain my market share and grow my business in 2011?”

The reason I mention retaining your market share is that many companies forget to put that first. They take their existing customers for granted while they pursue new customers. The problem is that they forget that while they are working on adding clients, their competition is too. And part of competitors’ plans is targeting your customers.

Start your 2011 marketing plan with a check-in on how your current customers are feeling about your goods and services. Look at what you can do to continue serving them best. Then use that information as part of your marketing program – use customer testimonials and find areas for improvement as you move into the New Year.

What if your clients are not happy with something about your business or your products? With online reviews so easy to find, customer satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) will come out either way. However, if you pay attention and manage that information, you have a chance to work out a solution with your customers directly. Then you can put how you solved customers’ problems on the internet yourself. If customers were unhappy with some of your product features or services, you can roll out new ones that address any concerns, for example. If, on the other hand, you got good reviews through your market research, you can repeat those testimonials on your website or ads to present an even stronger image of your business by showing how happy your customers remain.

Social Networking Terminology

You hear the terminology all around, but do you really get what it all means? Do you need a Twitter, FourSquare, Facebook or blog? Do you know what Geolocation and Geotagging are? How about Gowalla, HootSuite or LinkedIn, and what to do with them? You wouldn’t travel the world without a valuable glossary of the local terms for what you need most, so don’t travel the internet without knowing what all these terms are about. Checkout this valuable glossary to learn more about social media terms.

While you’re exploring your relationship marketing options, take a minute to sign up for a FREE trial of Constant Contact Event or Email Marketing Account. If you have any trouble give us a call. We are a Constant Contact Business Partner and we can help you improve your results and integrate proven marketing methods into your event or email program to boost your business (310) 791-6300.

Website Content, Is your Content Making the Cut?

The truth is that you don’t just need content on your website. You need the right content. So it is important to know what content your visitors are looking for and relate to the most. That is why you need to start with your own research into what content is bringing you traffic and what is not.

When it comes to your product or service, it is key that you understand what today’s buyers are searching for and the concerns or sales hurdles that keep them from making a decision to buy. Then you can target those consumers by having the content they need on your website or blog.

You can learn a lot about that by looking at the traffic anaytics and your website’s page performance statistics and seeing how often certain pages on your site are visited. Once you have determined the content and see what you think is the draw, you can duplicate that success or in the case that there is none, experiment by changing the content. Consider what you can do to make the other pages of your site become more popular with content that matters.

Remember your site is searchable so if you are getting referral links to a particular page in your website, chances are that people are looking for that information and related topics. Look for those trends and provide more. If you are not sure how to get started, start with your own website reporting information or tag your site with Google Analytics so you can track its performance over time. If you don’t have the time to do this yourself, forward us your specific questions.

Using Hashtags at Industry Events

I am sure you have been to events that ask you to include the hash tags in any discussion. So what should you do? First learn more about what hashtags can do for you or an event that you are planning. Second think about how you can get your market to use your hashtag to help grow your business or event.

In effect when people include your hashtag, they are like thousands of referrals telling your market and their connections how much your product or service does for them. Also the conversely, a negative message is as easily disseminated to many people so make sure you have worked out the bugs of your event or promotion. In addition, any last minute attendees, benefits and promotions can be tied to your event quickly and easily by using that hashtag.

Learn more about hashtags and other social media tools.

Get a FREE trial of email marketing and online surveys with Constant Contact.  If you have any trouble give us a call. We are a business partner for Constant Contact and we can help you improve your results and integrate proven marketing methods into your event or email program (310)791-6300.

What’s the best time to blog?

Social Media analysts over at ProBlogger crunched some numbers and analyzed when users are the most likely to Tweet, re-Tweet, share on Facebook, and read blogs. Their results are somewhat inconclusive, but they point out that the most popular blogs are the ones posting several times a day.

Doing your own Market Research

When you want to know how your potential customers view your company, you can start by just searching for your company online. Immediately, you will learn what others see when they do the same. Notice how many good comments there are in comparison to bad on social directory sites like Google Places or Yelp.com. Does the listing represent you and what your company has to offer? See if your online advertising is working. Do you pay for listings on yellowpages.com or other websites? If so, do those websites come up with your name listed and what you do clearly defined?

When you do your own research, consider that if you were looking into a company like yours to provide a service, how would you feel about the information that comes up? Would you give your company a consideration? If not, change your online image. If you are satisfied with your primary product or service profile, consider adding pages or listings of other product or services you sell to attract your secondary market or specific segments of your market.

Over time, like branches on a tree, your internet footprint should expand and appeal to different targeted individuals who are looking for your services. Make sure that your searches include the area in which you market so you truly see what your local market will see. For more information on helping your company improve their online representation, contact Liz Harsch with Tailor-Made Advertising in Torrance at 310-791-6300 or liz@adteamLA.com.