The Lost Ring » Businesses

People Like Buying From Unique Businesses 5 Ways To Become More Unique

furai86 — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:18:59 +0000

People Like Buying From Unique Businesses 5 Ways To Become More Unique

This is an add on to my article Businesses That Make Money Have These 6 Things In Common.

Ever walk into a store and you just feel the charm and personality coming from it? Why is this store different? Why are you drawn to it? Chances are because its different it’s unique. Unique businesses enjoy the benefits of increased sales and profits among other benefits. Today I’m going to talk about being unique and 5 things to help you be come different.

If your business is already going gangbusters don’t change your secret sauce. If you think you want to shake it up a little bit here are some ideas for you.

1. Interior Design

Interior design can really change the way people view your business. When interior design is done right it can create a sense of comfort. This will make potential clients much more willing to open up their wallets. It will also put your business in the unique businesses category.

2. Color Triggers Emotions.

Color is a common element of unique businesses. Big bold colors that are in your face to subtle hues. Consult with a professional who can guide you in this area because it’s really easy to mess this one up.

3. Lighting

Lighting goes along with interior design and color when all three are tied together correctly it really makes your business stand out.

4. Give something unexpected

When a person receives something unexpected they remember it. If you do it consistently you are going to get people talking. When giving something it doesn’t have to be a sample it could be an education. I actually find education is more memorable and words better than samples.  One tip when giving the gift of education is to not make it a sales pitch. If you are selling flooring have a few different areas of the store with the different thicknesses of flooring and have them walk on it. 5 mil is going to feel different than 12 mil. Compare two products that you sell, this way your not even talking about your competition and you’re the expert.

5. Change the experience

Unique businesses offer a different experience. What can you do that is different than your competition? Unique businesses stay with you long after you have left. Different parts of the county or a different country might have offered a completely different experience.

Have you ever gotten back from a trip to another country and you continually find yourself talking about a rest stop, ice cream shop or bathroom that you visited? Or when a friend gets back from a trip and tells you about the great experience at a shop in another country.

Are there things that you can implement into your business? You don’t need to make your business unique across the globe just to your target market.

As a business owner keep your eyes peeled for unique businesses. Many things that make a business unique can easily be transferred from one industry to another. So when you hear about someone talking up a business go and check it out and see what you can adopt to make your business more unique.

Marketing Strategy For Businesses on Facebook

sulistio_Y — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 09:46:01 +0000

Marketing Strategy For Businesses on Facebook

If you have been around social networking sites, you must have heard all the buzz about Facebook. One of the largest social networking sites with not only maximum number of individual users but with also a maximum number of organizations registered with it. So, there also is a buzz around that its one of the greatest opportunity to market your business on Facebook. Of course it is, but how many of them have actually made successful sales on Facebook those who have been trying to market their business on it?

Very few. Why? Lack of marketing strategy for a social media website. Facebook is certainly a great place to market a business but it is a social networking site. Marketing strategies in such cases are different. Here I will give you few tips to develop a unique marketing strategy for a business on Facebook.

Brand Yourself or Your Company:

Branding yourself or your company lets all the users round the world know who you are, what you are dealing with. Do not just sign up and start marketing your business. Complete your profile with everything in detail. Clearly state that what your company have achieved so far and what your future plans are. This will make a clear and solid impact in everyone who come across with your Facebook profile. They will know your business thoroughly and may like to deal with you.

Include Yourself into a Network:

If you notice carefully you will find most businesses are members of many of the related communities or groups. This is one of the things you must do too. But do not just become a member and wait for your business growth. You must let them know about your presence. You must stand out of the crowd. Start with making comments, take an active part in discussion, include yourself in a healthy debate, add members to your friend’s list. These are few of the ways that will bring you fast exposure.

Update Your Profile Regularly:

First thing the members of social networking sites do even before checking their emails is, check updates on their group members, communities etc. Keep your profile up-to-date. If you have no idea, you can upload an audio or video to your Facebook profile. Include an audio or video of your latest seminar or business meeting. That forms a professional impression in your community. Make a wall post about any recent activity that could be share with everyone. Stay updated and keep everyone updated.

Make a Sale on Facebook:

Here comes the butter of this article. All in all you joined Facebook to make sale. If you do not ask your customers to buy they will not come on their own to buy from you. There is a very legitimate and a very effective way to do this. With a little editing you could place your opt-in page on your Facebook profile. This is one of the perfect practices you should apply to market your business on Facebook. You could also place your products and a checkout button. But this is not what I would recommend you since people gather in this community for fun, latest information, problem solving and simply to meet new friends. You should be able to balance your sa

Now Pay Close Attention –

Using your Facebook Fan Page to increase your business exposure and revenue is simpler than you’ve been told. Everyone with a facebook fan page faces the same two problems:

[Problem #1] How To Find Interested Facebook Users

[Problem #2] How To Bring Them To Become Your Fans

There are services such as Facebook Fan Supply who has been solving these two problems for hundreds of satisfied customers. Such services will generally supply real fans targeted to your specific age group, keyword, interest and location. You can try visiting Facebook Fan supply and order a package to increase the number of fans in your Facebook fanpage and provide more prospects for your business.Tweet

My Top 10 Website and Internet Marketing Tips for Gift Basket Businesses

Chris — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:45:47 +0000

My Top 10 Website and Internet Marketing Tips for Gift Basket Businesses

If you own a gift basket business, want to start one or add one to an existing related business, consider taking your products and gift basket business online. You’ll need to plan ahead and know how you’re going to market it first. Anyone can set up a website but no one will know it’s there until you drive traffic to it. So you’ll need to learn a few Internet marketing tips, tricks and techniques. I’ve outlined some of my most important gift basket business tips in the following list:

1. Learn copywriting tricks to help you write your website pages. Write like you talk, use contractions, short sentences, and learn the rules for title capitalization. Articles (like ‘a’, ‘an’, etc.) and connector words are not capitalized unless they’re the first word in a sentence. Prepositions are not capitalized if they have four letters or less. Check on the Internet and keep a stylebook or grammar book handy.

2. Choose the easiest website builder available. Text (WYSIWYG -‘what you see is what you get’) editor or html editor? A text editor for website building is best. You don’t need to use an html editor like Frontpage or Dreamweaver to put up a great website! And many report they’re difficult to use. You want a website builder with an easy interface. Plan to be your own Webmaster rather than farming out work to Webmasters or programmers. Expenses can add up fast and you may need to make changes several times a week. Initially it’ll take some time and devotion to learn how to do it, but you’ll have that knowledge forever. You can build even more websites and get paid for consulting too.

3. Choose a good Web host. Make sure the host offers unlimited amounts of email addresses and lots of bandwidth or data transfer. Call or email support to see how fast they respond. If your website ever goes down in a high traffic period you’ll want to be able to get in touch with them fast. There are hundreds of Web hosts. Read what several Web host reviewers report before you decide. They’re usually pitching an affiliate Web host or two and may not be objective. Look for complaints on the search engines about specific hosts you’re researching. Sign up for monthly service rather than annual service so you can evaluate further if necessary.

4. Choose the right primary and secondary keywords for your site. Do your research BEFORE you publish. The competition will be high for common words and you’ll likely not end up on the first page. There are several free keyword tools available. In the search engines type in gift basket-related words in quotes to see what the competition is using. How many pages come up? How many visitors for that keyword or keyword phrase? Right click on ‘view source’ to see the keywords in html. Look for keywords in the website and ad headlines and descriptions.

5. Write your marketing plan BEFORE you start buying any equipment or software, or building your website. You’ll need to know HOW you’re going to market your site BEFORE you start building it. Will you be adding affiliates to your site? Google AdSense? Will you offer a newsletter? Will you be selling other physical products besides your gift baskets? Or maybe you only want a site to market a digital product like an ebook about gift baskets? Plan to submit gift basket-related articles using an article distribution service and press releases using press distribution software. You’ll get sought-after inbound links through the reprinting of your articles and press releases. Also sign up for a good link service.

6. Choose the right affiliates if you plan to include affiliate marketing. Make sure the affiliates fit with your gift basket theme. Don’t add totally unrelated banners.

7. Learn how to use eBay in your marketing plan for an extra boost in sales and exposure. Use the “About Me” page to hype your website.

8. Learn html code — optional but I highly recommend it. Use a simple free tutorial offered on the Internet. You don’t have to write code unless you want to. It’s not necessary with the text editors out there that do the work for you. You could spend hours writing html. Why do that? You can learn the basics in a day or so. You don’t have to learn the advanced code. Even if you only take two or three lessons you’ll be way ahead of the game.

9. Learn how to write a free newsletter to boost your online presence. Take dozens of other free newsletters in various fields of interest and study style and techniques. Offer your free newsletter in the beginning when you first publish your site to start collecting subscribers. Don’t wait until later.

10. Choose an autoresponder service to handle your newsletter database, send out newsletter inquiry responses and free reports you’re offering. This is a must if you plan to have a newsletter. It’s the best way to handle your subscribers, send out confirmations, and get your newsletter out, etc. It usually costs about per month.

Make sure to back-up everything. Back up your website files daily, if you make any changes. I know this is basic. Make copies of your site to CDs often. Put website copies on another computer hard drive. Network two computers if possible. Anything can happen to your hard drive. A surge, lightning, age, drive defect, etc., can damage your hard drive in an instant.

These are just a few of the gift basket business tips you can use to get your online gift basket business up and running. It takes research and hard work but it’ll be well worth the effort in an increased customer base and a big boost in income.

When you do get your gift basket website up, if you plan it right, it can mean lifetime income. With weekly maintenance— adding rich content, more pages, affiliates, products and specialty baskets, and daily good marketing, you’ll get a big boost in your gift basket business income. Millions go online typing in gift basket-related inquiries daily. I hope you find these gift basket business tips useful. Happy Internet marketing!

Will It Work For Chocolate Home Businesses?

furai86 — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:17:12 +0000

There is never a shortage of income opportunities on the World Wide Web. However, many internet ventures may not do for you, especially if you are looking for sustainability in an enterprise. In particular, chocolate home businesses are growing, and are foreseen to continue doing so.

Why chocolates? Does this even need an explanation? It has been a delicacy for hundreds if not thousands of years. Surely, people’s cravings for chocolate will not disappear when the next internet fad or craze dies down.

If you are one of the many who have sought a home business, you would probably know that there is a lot of effort needed to make sales, let alone profit from what you are doing. The chances of finding a real money-making business opportunity are not too dim, but it is not particularly easy work either.

Selling M&M’s, for example, may not seem to be that difficult a thing to do. However, you should also consider that M&M’s are sold in almost every convenience store in the planet. How are you going to make your website stand out in terms of selling this brand of chocolate? This is where creativity is needed.

What promotions can you realistically offer that will reap rewards for both you and your customer? What other information can you place in your website to make the experience a value-added one for the regular Web browser? You may not be able to stop a person from choosing to buy something else or go to another Web page, but you can entice someone to stay on though, say, healthy diet recipes that would go hand in hand with M&M’s (The issue of whether M&M’s is ‘healthy’ is another matter). Instead of going to the store, they can buy chocolates online at your site without worry.

You can also provide a gift service, so that a buyer will not have to go all the way to Arizona from New Mexico, just to hand a box of chocolates to their favorite nephew. It is fairly simple to hire a Phoenix delivery service to get these goodies and bring them to the recipient. Gift chocolates are a great way to show that you care, or that you remembered someone’s birthday.

You may also offer imported chocolates found only in select places in the globe. Say, if you had tried a peanut-based chocolate bar from the Philippines, which has no equivalent elsewhere in the world, you may decide to import them wholesale and sell them to Filipinos in other communities, or to just about anybody who would like this certain brand of chocolate.

Online shops are not going to kill the traditional neighborhood chocolate shop. In fact, they are going to extending their reach. You may partner yourself with owners of a regular shop, receiving the same discount as they do, and selling for the same profit or even more, considering your reduced expenses by using the internet instead. There will be no monthly rents, electricity or water (other than that of where you live, that is), and less travel expenses to worry about.

Just like any of the successful small businesses, it is not enough to have the latest technology. It is the application of this technology to suit the servicing of consumer wants that matters. You can never rest on your laurels, even after you have established an online reputation. In fact, you have to be wary of when you begin profiting a big deal from your venture. It means that there is a hole in the world of business that competitors have yet to fill. You will have to work twice as hard to retain the advantages that you have attained.

When you have a great idea, run with it. But do not think that this great idea is going to last forever and make money for you until the day you die. An analogy of this is in the music industry. All the great singers are not known for one single song, or if they are, they have plenty more songs that maintained and raised their status as superstars. In the same way, there is not just one entrepreneurial idea that is going to propel you to eternal wealth and comfort. Even if there were, you would want to stay active in the game, wouldn’t you?

After all, when pursuing chocolate home businesses or any other type of business, the name of the game really is to have fun. Have fun with it. This is what is going to keep the ideas rolling, and what will be appreciated by your customers in the long run.

A Green Energy Future: How Businesses Can Take Advantage Of Solar Energy

furai86 — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 06:34:02 +0000

Throughout the last decade, businesses have seen obscene climbs in energy costs, a trend that’s certain to continue into this next one. If utility costs make up a good deal of your overhead expenses, skyrocketing energy rates can devastate your ability to stay in business. Solar energy, on the other hand, is a perfectly free natural resource. Utilize solar resources, and you’ll save money as you also build profit. Let’s examine a few ideas for how businesses can take advantage of solar energy.

Cut Utility Costs
As utility rates continue to jump, your business won’t be affected by the steep increases as much when you already harvest solar power. Any sunny afternoon, sit back and watch your electric meter tick backwards. Steep rates will be hardly noticed when more of your energy comes directly from the solar panels getting a suntan on the roof. Why pay the electric company when you can instead get credit for the energy you produce?

Emissions Trading
Obama has stated that the nation should enter a cap and trade program to help slow global warming. In the near future, increased governmental pressure makes cuts in pollution valuable commodities for business. As a renewable resource, solar energy slashes a company’s emissions rates, earning you credits that can then be sold to more polluting companies. Sunlight makes money, thanks to emissions trading exchange. Get in the game and put it to work for you.

Tax Credits and Rebates
Additionally, Obama has called for a national investment in renewable energy resources, creating many tax credits and rebates. These credits are on the table for the taking. With a cut in taxes, solar power becomes more affordable than ever before. Solar panels always pay for themselves, but they pay the bill even faster thanks to tax credits and rebates. Look into what’s available for your region.

Free Resource
Sunlight has no price tag, Once you’ve invested in their infrastructure, solar panels take care of themselves without much work from you. They have very low maintenance costs. If you use panels for more than a few years, they’ll pay for their investment. You don’t have to do much work to keep the lights on.

Online Marketing Tips – A Guide For Offline Businesses

furai86 — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 10:00:22 +0000

The latest fad for internet marketing is to work at selling offline businesses. This fad has risen because most offline businesses have NO IDEA how useful marketing on the internet can be for them. They are unaware of the potential that they are not taking advantage of. These tips will help you make easy offline cash by utilizing the potential of offline business marketing.

Internet marketing is also greatly advantageous for offline businesses in terms of overhead and many other factors, besides the worldwide exposure they get by marketing on the internet as compared to only offline marketing. A good example is coupons, which businesses print for special offers and promotions. By giving these online, printing and distribution costs are almost completely eliminated.

Furthermore, if businesses list themselves in the ‘Yellow Pages‘ , they get very limited coverage, as compared to listing themselves in an online business directory where they can be seen worldwide. This difference is increasingly strengthened in today’s world, where people no longer rush to the ‘yellow pages’, but to online directories.

Podcasting

Podcasting or vidcasting is a form of online subscription to an audio or video broadcast on niche topics. Since only interested people subscribe, offline businesses get access to a TARGETED audience, in this free means of communication. By putting a little work into making their product sound good, you can use this as a powerful tool.

Tutoring

If you are looking for ways that require a little less thought, and especially if the businesses themselves want more control, you can teach them about internet marketing and let them do it themselves. They can learn all about list generation, the different mediums of advertising like press releases and Craiglist, and the different ways of profiting online.

Just Doing the Whole Thing

In addition to earning money through these charges, most offline business owners turn to internet marketers to do this entire internet marketing for them. This is because they not only find it too difficult to learn all there is to learn about internet marketing, most of them dont have the time to do so too.

Blogging

The advantage of blogging is that businesses can build their lists easily, as well as form a sort of ‘customer community’ and get feedback, ALL FOR FREE. A blog makes it possible to generate a worldwide audience and communicate everything about the business to that audience quickly and easily.

An advertising ‘combination’

You can also use blogs to combine the above methods. For example, the blog can be used to communicate information about the business, as well as to have people sign up for a newsletter (building the business’ list), and the newsletter can replace a podcast by communicating all the latest info and updates. AND ALL THIS FOR FREE.

So you can see that internet marketing is very useful to an offline business. However always remember that it is only if you use a combination of offline and online marketing techniques will you be able to reap maximum sales and benefit from a business.Tweet

Agriculture & Environment Industries Are The Largest Growth Businesses In The Present And Next 5 Decades – Part 1 of 3

furai86 — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 04:35:48 +0000

I participated a workshop a few years ago and the mentors said about the feasible future growing business sectors in the forthcoming 50 years. They mentioned about 15 sectors but I can only recall about ten sectors.

For the feasible rising commercial industries, kindly note that each country may have dissimilar manpower, resources, environment, weather and others for their own regional needs. Below list of industries are in general applicable to most of the countries :-

1) Environment Related Sector

2) Agriculture Sector

3) Energy Sector

4) Infrastructure Sector

5) Education and Health Services Sector

6) Professional and Business Services Sector

7) Information Businesses Sector

Financial Activities Sector

9) Logistic Sector

10) Drinking Water Sector

Item (3) Energy Sector – Do you aware that it will create wars if there is a shortage in this sector ? Every country is struggling energies for their industrial use and people consumptions. Just for your information, shortage of either gold or energies will create war.

Item (4) Infrastructure Sector – This is the fundamental necessity for a better living environment of beings. Within the forthcoming fifty years, in my opinion, it is impossible to attain the stage of saturation for the world, particularly in the third world, Asia and/or less developed countries.

Item (5) – (8) Sectors – These are generally the fumeless services related sectors for the well-being, hotel, trading, tourism, commercial, etc. The demand in these sectors can never stop but I personally feel that the competitions of these sectors are grand. To be sustainable in these sectors, the uniqueness of businesses and better service quality level will determine the winners.

Item (9) Logistic Sector – Due to depleting of natural resources, such as crude oil and others, and higher living costs for the general public, the world will switch the way of living of the public by pooling resources to tap business and non-business means. By the time, I personally anticipate that the majority of the people will work at their residential territory and physical goods deliveries will be handled through the logistic sector. Surely, I also personally perceive that the competition of this logistic sector is large too.

Item (10) Drinking Water Sector – The supply of sources of non-contaminated water is gradually diminishing due to human behaviors such as pollutions, weather, wars, and others. Other causes may be the wastages by the users and industrial uses. This sector may be a huge capital investment and the wealthy is much easier to access into this sector.

For items (1) Environment Related Sector and (2) Agriculture Sector, I personally think these two industries are greatly important and the growth of these two industries are nearly absolutely assured.Tweet

Free resources for small businesses from Google

furai86 — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:14:50 +0000

Google has many terrific free resources for small businesses. Below, we summarize our six favorite free resources for small business from Google. In each case, we describe the resource, help you understand why you should consider using it, and offer tips on using with links to additional information if you’d like to read more about that resource.

1. AdWords Small Business Center

What it is: AdWords is Google’s advertising program. When people search on Google.com and partner sites, Google displays text ads (at the top of the search results and to the right of the search results). According to Google:

AdWords enables you to create online advertisements and show them on Google and across a huge network of partner websites. Advertising with AdWords allows you to reach new customers at the precise moment when they are searching for your type of products and services. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad, and you control how much you spend on each click, your daily budget, and where your ads appear. AdWords accounts also include graphs and performance data so you can track what’s working and edit your ads accordingly.

The AdWords Small Business Center was established by Google earlier this month to help educate small business about ways they can better leverage AdWords and to provide best practices and tips. The Center has useful free guides on writing strong text ads, choosing good keywords, adjusting your budgets, tracking your results, and improving your conversions. The Center contains useful tips for beginner, intermediate and advanced users. The Center also has a discussion forum where users can share AdWords strategies with others – and ask questions.

Why you should consider using it: Although AdWords can be a powerful marketing tool for small business, more than half of small business owners stop paid advertising within six month of starting. This often happens because many small business owners don’t fully understand the many ways they can customize and leverage their AdWords marketing programs.

Tips: If you’re spending money on AdWords, you should regularly read Google’s AdWords blog for the latest information about AdWords, useful resources, and tips. If you want to learn more about search engine marketing, I suggest you read 10 Practical Small Business SEO and SEM marketing tips.

2. Google Analytics

What it is: Google Analytics is a free tool from Google that provides detailed and very useful information about your website traffic and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Why you should consider using it: There are numerous paid analytics tools available – and many are quite good. Google Analytics is free and offers more than enough features that small businesses need. Google has continued to innovate in this area and has recently added new features, including advanced segmentation (allowing you to analyze subsets of your traffic) and custom reports.

Tips: We monitor traffic to every page on our site. We also monitor every marketing campaign that we run to evaluate whether the expenses (both time and effort) are justified. We’ll also occasionally compare our data to those of our competitors. If you’re interested in reading more about evaluating your competitors, I recommend you read 10 Tips For Evaluating Your Competitors – a useful guide that lists additional resources that could supplement your analytics data.

If you use Firefox, you’ll want to get this extension right away – Better Google Analytics. It adds a ton of useful features to your analytics account giving you the ability to export data to Google Docs, absolute numbers (as opposed to percentages), quick search, table sorting, and social media metrics (among other things).

3. Google Apps

What it is: Google Apps is a free (standard edition) or low-cost (premier edition) online service that provides powerful email, calendar, collaboration, documents, spreadsheets, and intranet solutions for small businesses.

Why you should consider using it: The standard edition is free and gives you up to 50 users, which should be plenty for most small businesses. You get access to Gmail, calendar, Google Docs, and Google Sites. For businesses interested in accounts for more than 50 users and additional capability, Google charges $50 per user per year for the Premier Edition. It would cost you considerably more (in setup, time, and support) to replicate the services offered in Google Apps on your own. You’ll get outstanding email service with world-class email security, spam filtering and archiving, group calendar capability, group document, spreadsheet and presentation capability, and although we don’t use this feature – the opportunity to create an intranet for your company. And Google guarantees that the service will be available 99.9% of the time (based on our experience, this number is accurate).

Tips: Some of us use the online Gmail interface while others use the Mail client in OS X. We often generate documents and spreadsheets that we share among our team, and we share online calendars (iMail integrates nicely with Google Apps – some on our team prefer iMail and Calendar in OS X – and those live peacefully with the rest of us who use the Google native online applications). Also, there are numerous resources available for Google Docs, such as wireframing templates for web designers. For a bit more about the applications in the Google Apps suite, I recommend you read The Small Business Guide to Google Apps.

4. Google Alerts

What it is: Google alerts are free email updates from Google search results about any topic you’re interested in tracking.

Why you should consider using it: Alerts are very useful to track competitors, local news, and pretty much anything you’re interested in tracking. For example, we track our competitors, industry keywords, our own name, and much more. Anytime Google adds something to its index that mentions one of the keywords you track, you’ll receive an email update with a link to that item. It’s a great way to keep up with new developments without having to continually search on Google.

Tips: If you track keywords that generate a lot of content, you’ll want to receive a daily update. For some keywords, you can receive immediate notifications as soon as the Google index publishes something using that keyword. A good strategy – and one I’ve used for several years, is to create a list of most important alerts (for which you’ll receive immediate notifications) and then another list of alerts which are less important and for which daily notifications would be appropriate. You also should keep each alert separate (or at least group alerts in logical ways) so that the email subject like tells you exactly what’s contained in the alert.

5. Google Places

What it is: Google Places is a free program that allows businesses to manage their presence on Google.

Why you should consider using it: As of April 2010, four million businesses had claimed their Place Page on Google (which means those businesses verified and supplemented the basic information that was already in Google’s index). Among other things, businesses can add hours of operation, photos, videos, coupons, product offerings and more.

Tips: Google can help small businesses create photos of their business that would be published in the Google search index. You can apply here. According to Google, “any business can apply for a photo shoot, and demand will help us decide where to send our photographers next.” A nice benefit is that pictures from the photo shoot are added direclty ot your Place Page.

For businesses wondering why they should invite Google to take a photo of their business for free, Google offers the following answer:

Just as you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t always judge a business by its exterior. Interior photographs are a great way to show potential customers what your business is really like. By enhancing your Place Page, business photos will help your business stand out above the competition and get discovered on Google. Millions of users will be able to visit your establishment from the comfort of their own homes, or preview it to help them decide on a visit. Best of all, it’s free!

While you’re not guaranteed that Google will select your business to be photographed, it’s a simple application process and the program is free.

6. Hardware devices for Check-ins and business reviews

What it is: Industry sources are reporting that Google will soon distribute millions of mobile devices to small businesses allowing customers to “check-in” to those businesses and to rate the businesses. Google is apparently launching this program to compete with location-based services like Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, and Yelp.

Although there’s been much buzz about location based services, it’s not yet clear whether the public has a strong interest in using such services, as evident by the recent numbers from a nationwide promotion by McDonald’s on Foursquare.

Why you should consider using it: Among other reasons, the devices will likely allow you to process Google Checkout transactions (receive payments using Google’s payment system). In the past, Google has run aggressive promotions when it’s attempted to introduce Google Checkout to new markets (including substantial discounts for customers). Such promotions help stimulate sales and business (and unlike most campaigns, Google pays for the promotions).

But even if Google Checkout isn’t part of the promotion, you can anticipate that Google will throw substantial marketing dollars to promote this program in competition with many other location-based services. Since Google dominates the search business, you can also anticipate that there’ll be a close integration between hardware devices and Google’s search products. There’s little harm to early adoption if the product is free and requires a very modest investment of time.

Tips: If you’ve not experimented at all with location-based services, you should do so, especially if you operate a small business that can leverage such services. Many small businesses are successfully leveraging location-based marketing. For more information on ways your small business can leverage a service like Foursquare, I recommend you read How To Use Foursquare Effectivele For Your Small Business and 7 Reasons Why Small Businesses Should Take a Look at Foursquare.

Have you used some of these resources? Do you know other useful and free resources offered by Google for small businesses?

View full post on crowdSPRING BlogTweet

Explode your Home-based Businesses by Applying What you Already Know

furai86 — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 10:34:47 +0000

From the time you were born,you were influencing others to get what you wanted. As a baby, you cried when you were hungry and that crying influenced your mother or father to give you what you wanted, which was food or a change of clothes. If you ever threw a tantrum that ended up with your parent giving in to you, you successfully sold yourself.

Throughout our entire lives we influence other people to get what we want, need or desire. Even when it doesn’t apply to money, what we are doing is marketing.

A successful home-based business owner understands that marketing a product requires the same mindset to get anything in life. It’s not about convincing someone that your product has a ton of benefits for the sake of making a sale. There are lots of products out there they can buy with similar benefits. It’s about finding people who already have a need, want or desire for what you have and using the same skills you learned throughout your life to influence that person.

You must learn the art and skill of influencing others in order to succeed. Think back on some of the memories you have where you went out of your way to really convince someone of something. What did you say? How did you say it? Who was the person? How bad did you want what you were after? If you analyze all of these variables, you will realize that there is a formula to each successful “sale” that you had.

For example, if you begged and pleaded for a brand new bicycle when you were a child, I’m sure you did your research and planning before you approached your parents. You knew their hearts would melt if you showed them those big blue sad eyes, and you were probably armed with a back-up plan. Maybe it was a list of your most recent accomplishments or some extra chores you were willing to do. No matter what it was, you were ready to influence your parents. Nothing is different now. You are just marketing a product instead of yourself.

In order to influence others, they must perceive you as a person of talent and virtue. The people you have influenced throughout your life valued your character and you had a certain skill-set that increased your chances of success. Part of that skill set was knowing who your audience was. You knew that they had a valued interest in you, so you used that to influence your approach. The same technique is required in marketing.

Most sales people aren’t persistent enough to get past being told no. No usually means something other than no, and if you know your audience you can narrow the real reasons down. Find out who they are and what kinds of struggles they have gone through to get them to the point where they needed to talk to you. When you know their pains, you can go beyond taking their no for an answer and truly show them how you can help.

The more targeted your audience is, the easier it is to help them. You really don’t want to keep rattling off benefit after benefit hoping that one of them will hit your target. Your goal here is to fullfill their want, need or desire. The focus should be on helping them with what you have to offer.

If you are marketing weight loss, for example, you need to be more specific. Every news stand on every corner is full of weight loss magazines trying to sell people the latest fad diets. The market is way too saturated to generalize on such a broad term. Find out why they need to lose weight. Everyone has different reasons and challenges and if you know them specifically, you can show them how your product can help them personally.

Another helpful lesson you already learned from your life experiences is that you cannot share what you do not feel. You had a passion for wanting that bicycle. You saw it in the store and took it for a spin around the aisle. You knew what it felt like enough to envision yourself riding it down the street with the breeze flowing through your hair. You simply can not generate that kind of excitement by seeing a picture in a magazine. Not enough of an excitement to make you want to sell your soul to your parents for it.

What this means is that you must be a product of your product. You have to know what it feels like to experience it before you can explain it to others. The more different benefits you can experience from your product, the more people you can help. The passion you feel about your product will also come across with how you present the benefits to them as well.

And don’t forget, when someone gave you something that you truly wanted and they filled a need, what did you say? “Thank You.” So the difference between selling and marketing is extremely important. When you are selling something, you say “Thank You.” When you are a marketer and filling their need, they will say, “Thank You.” The bottom line is that you need to learn how to apply what you already know to the art of “marketing” not “sales.”

Anyone can get better at marketing if they apply the principles of every day life to their home-based business. This alone is enough to get a stalled business moving in the right direction. This is just one principle you can apply from a proper marketing education. Unfortunately, most network marketing companies won’t teach you the rest because they play a numbers game to benefit the company as a whole. They are teaching you how to “Sell” not how to “Market.” There is a difference. That’s why there is a 95% drop-out rate in the industry.

No matter what the statistics are, it is possible to succeed in network marketing. All you need is a willingness to change your education and start thinking outside of the box.Tweet

Business Advertising Strategies For Home Businesses

furai86 — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 05:57:40 +0000

Getting the Word Out with Power and Persuasion

A well defined business advertising strategy is the key to home business success. All home businesses need to communicate their advertising message either to generate new business opportunities or to reinforce their message to their customers. As a home business entrepreneur, you can advertise your home business either online or offline or use a combination strategy. All three pathways are known to be very effective.

For your home business, the avenues of business advertising may be either online or offline.

Offline advertising includes:

Print media such as newspapers, magazines and brochures

Electronic media such as radio, television and cable advertising

Online media includes:

Internet-based advertising such as Pay Per Click, banner advertising, Pay Per Impression, e-mail marketing and a host of other virtual advertising avenues

Using a Combination Strategy to Advertise your Home Business

By using a combination strategy to showcase your home-based company, you could get a big bang for the buck. So evaluate various options.

You will most probably be creating the advertisement yourself so follow a few simple rules. Write using “you” and in active voice, keeping sentences short. Bear in mind the context of the reader. A classified advertisement would have to be short and to the point compared to something you are sending out by e-mail or posting on a mailing list, Internet forum or discussion group. Try and include a referral if you have the space. Just send out one message in the advertisement.

Look at some of the options you have.

Your very own Website

Many individuals go on to the Internet to research products and services even while buying from a brick and mortar shop. Maintaining your own website would be a good option but if you are unable to so at least advertise on sites. Make sure that you are on to free listings, many municipalities and business associations offer this service. So conduct research. Sell your product on eBay. That is one of the best ways to advertise your product.

Business Advertising through e-mail

There is an increasing level of hostility to spam. So be very careful of this media. It can be used to communicate with people who have shown interest in your product or service and also with existing customers. E-mail doesn’t cost anything to send. However, send it only to your confirmed subscribers such as those who have signed up for your online newsletter on your website. If your company does not have a newsletter, please explore that possibility at the earliest.

Traditional Business Advertising through Community and Neighborhood Newspapers

Newspaper advertising is short lived. Advertisements in magazines have a slightly longer life. Again, look for special supplements that are published periodically. Also, look at newsletters published by community NGOs. For certain categories of products and services, newspaper classified columns work out very well and strangely enough better than large advertisements in the same paper.

Consider cable television and radio if you can afford it. these have a very loyal audience and accurate local reach all at a low cost.

Direct mail continues to be popular amongst some sellers. However, though it is costly but it may be very effective to relate to existing customers. Also, you can send promos. These offers are often not used but are kept by individuals to give away to others.

Using Business Cards for Business Advertising

Your business card should not just contain the usual company name and various addresses. It is your corporate signature. It should contain several additional details such as:

The products you sell or the service you provide

The names of the various brands you carry

A catchy slogan that your prospective customers can remember

Use a double leaf business card and spread your business message. This is one of the most under used tools of business advertising.

Forums on the Internet

don’t think just in terms of forums which are related to your business. A charitable cause in which you could participate may yield contacts which later translate into business. You could keep a stall for hand tools in a school fair well knowing that none will sell but gives exposure to your home business.

Yellow Pages Advertising

Don’t forget the yellow pages. Sometimes a small descriptor of a business is free. So it is not necessary to stick in a large advertisement. Many buyers will call up twenty sellers before deciding, not just the one with a large advertisement. Don’t forget to include multiple classifications of your product or service, as that will increase your presence.

Sending a promotional offer is one of the best forms of advertisement. It can be sent to existing customers or potential ones.

Here are some words that you need to be very careful about using. They often go down badly with readers of advertisements:

Guarantee: If you include a warranty, provide brief details. Don’t say ‘we guarantee the product’.

Free: When you use the word free, everyone looks for a catch.

Opportunity: Remember, a buyer wants a hair dryer to work well, she is not looking for a ‘wonderful opportunity’ to buy one.

Remember your advertising messages need to be roughly the same year after year. For that you need to understand your business in relation to your clients. Having understood the business, you will have to choose the media. And most importantly, you have to find ways of testing which form of advertisement is working well. Have your say in the comments section and we wish you good luck with your business advertising mission!Tweet