Bizsuccess

Monday, February 1, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

Creating a Facebook Page (formerly called Facebook Fan Page) to promote your small business is a great way to leverage the social Web for marketing purposes, build relationships with your target audience, and raise brand awareness, recognition and loyalty (not to mention word-of-mouth marketing).

Facebook Pages are different from your personal Facebook profile because Facebook profiles are intended to be used by individuals while Facebook Pages are intended to be used by businesses, brands, organizations, non-profits, and celebrities.  Only an official representative of a business, brand, organization or celebrity can create a Facebook Page.

When you create a Facebook Page, you become the administrator (admin) of that page, meaning you run the show.  You can upload content, start conversations, share information about exclusive discounts, answer consumer questions, and anything else you want to do on your business’ Facebook page to help promote it. More »

Friday, January 29, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

Social media marketing is a powerful opportunity for small business owners, but it takes a big time investment and a lot of patience and persistence to truly grow a business through social media marketing.  Of course, you can hire a social media consultant or company to help you create and implement a social media marketing strategy for your small business to take the work load off of your plate, but that takes a monetary investment.

How can a small business owner truly leverage the power of social media marketing without feeling completely overwhelmed? More »

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

It’s a common scenario.  Your attending a conference, trade show, seminar, or other work-related event where you’re surrounded by people who could be potential business partners, clients or customers.  You introduce yourself to a person who could be a great prospect or contact and hand him or her your business card.  You ask that person to send you an email, and when you return to the office, you probably take the initiative and follow-up by sending your own email to that person.  And then you never hear from that person again.

How many times has this happened to you? More »

Monday, January 25, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

You have a blog to help market your small business, but you don’t have time to update it.  That’s a very common problem for small business owners.  Fortunately, there are a lot of highly skilled (and many less skilled) bloggers and writers who can help you by creating content for your blog.  Most bloggers work independently from their homes.  Therefore, it’s critical that you hire a dependable blogger who can work autonomously.

Before you hire a blogger to write content for your blog, you need to make a few decisions and answer some questions: More »

Friday, January 22, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

New data is out about soaring coupon usage in 2009, which clearly shows consumers are using both online and offline coupons for a variety of products and services.

Following are 10 statistics about coupon distribution and redemption in 2009 as reported by BrandWeek and culled from research compiled by Inmar.

1. Packaged goods coupon use was up 27% in 2009 over 2008 representing the first increase in 17 years.
2. 90% of coupon distribution is through newspaper free-standing-inserts (FSis) and over half of all coupons redeemed are from those inserts.
3. The redemption rate for coupons distributed through FSIs in 2009 grew by 36% (higher than the overall coupon redemption growth of 27%).
4. Online coupon redemption rates were up by more than 36% in 2009.
5. Online coupon distribution was up by 92% in 2009.
6. Companies increased their coupon distribution but lowered the discounts given on those coupons in 2009. More »

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

As a follow up to my article about how color affects small businesses marketing, I want to share some information about how color can be used to elicit the right emotions and actions for your marketing materials and ads.

There is an entire field dedicated to color psychology and marketing, which analyzes how people react subconsciously to different colors.  Businesses can use that knowledge to their benefit by choosing colors to use in their brand identity and marketing materials that will evoke the feelings they want consumers to have when they think of their brands or see their ads.

Following are some examples of the feelings that popular colors are believed to evoke when people see them: More »

Monday, January 18, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

Is your Twitter stream boring or packed with self-promotional tweets and nothing else?  The best Twitter streams for business growth are those that follow the 80-20 rule — 80% of your content should not be self-promotional and 20% may be self promotional (notice the use of the word may rather than should).  Remember, your goals for using Twitter to market your small business might be different from other people’s goals.  Take the time to establish your objectives up front and then create the content that will best help you meet those goals.

To get you started, following are ten types of tweets you can intersperse to liven up your small business Twitter stream with varied and interesting content that your followers are likely to enjoy and seek out. More »

Friday, January 15, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

Establishing yourself as an expert in your field is an excellent way to give your small business publicity.  It’s particularly helpful if you can build an online presence that establishes you as a go-to person for reliable information about your field of expertise.  Not only does it help people to trust you and your business but it also helps search engine optimization efforts in that every mention of you or your business online adds to the number of ways that people can learn about you and find your Web site.

With that in mind, following are 10 ways you can establish your reputation as an expert in your field (with a focus on building an online presence): More »

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

I’ve provided lists of Twitter apps I think small business owners should try before (see 10 must-try Twitter apps here and 10 more small business Twitter apps here), and I’d like to add four more localized Twitter apps that can help you connect with consumers in your area.

Twitter can be a great local marketing tool, but first you need to find, follow and build relationships with Twitter users in your area.  The Twitter apps and tools listed below are incredible resources to help you get started quickly and effectively in using Twitter for marketing purposes. More »

Monday, January 11, 2010

By: Susan Gunelius

If you’re a woman (and frankly, even if you’re a man) and you own a business or dream of becoming an entrepreneur, then you should start reading what other successful businesswomen have to say!  Fortunately, the social Web provides many opportunities for you to do exactly that!

Following are ten women or businesswomen-focused Twitter profiles that you should follow through your own Twitter account to help you learn from experts in a variety of fields of thought leadership: More »