Three Best Practices of Blogging - ISSUE 14 - 1/11/12

In today's world, information is constantly changing and what worked for a business owner in the past for acquiring new business, may not work in the present. You must strive to be the best everyday because if you don't, your competition most likely will. Search engines love blogs, and if you don't blog, your company's online presence will dwindle quickly and soon thereafter be overwhelmed by what other people are saying about you or your company and there's nothing you can do about it.

Before you start blogging, there are some things you need to know about it and some best practices for you to follow to ensure you are maximizing your time and your efforts.

First, in order for your efforts to be worth your time, you must blog on a regular basis. The search engines are looking for the most up-to-date and relevant information. This means that if you don't stay up with it, before long, your information will be outdated and irrelevant to what people are looking for. Depending on the amount of resources you have available to you, you should do your best to dedicate an hour a day to blogging. Before you know it, the search engines will be finding your articles and leading people to your blog which will then lead to more potential clients and therefore, more sales.

Second, make sure you are writing about topics that your potential clients will be interested in as well as topics relevant to your company. A perfect example of this is Best Western's Travel Blog - You Must Be Trippin'. In this blog you can find a wealth of information about travel to anywhere around the globe. In this blog, Best Western does not talk about themselves, rather a topic that pretty much anyone in the world would be interested in.

Lastly, don't forget to add some type of call-to-action and a way to interact with your followers so that you can build the necessary relationships and ultimately, build your business. If you don't then all your efforts will go to waste. One of the best aspects of a blog are that they are already equipped with a Comment section for your readers to share their thoughts and opinions, but since not everyone will be interested or confident enough to share their thoughts, you should incorporate a poll section into the sidebar. This will give you a very good idea of how many people are interested in the topics you write about, as well as the questions you ask.

To get more great business development information, visit www.suitedmarketing.com. We look forward to serving you.

If you would like more insight from the expert bloggers at MarketingProfs, take a look at the following online workshop hosted by the Chief Content Officer, Ann Handley (Twitter - @MarketingProfs), and her associate, Mark Collier.

How to Blog Effectively for Business (GF101)

Going from Good to Great - ISSUE 13 - 9/20/11

As a fellow business owner, I realize establishing a business encompasses more competition in the marketplace than ever before. Every time I go on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn I see loads of business owners working diligently to grow their business utilizing technology and the mass number of eyeballs viewing the respective websites.

There is no doubt the networking websites have become increasingly saturated with other like-minded individuals doing the exact same thing you are. As of 2009, there were 27.5 million small businesses in the United States alone and on the web you are dealing with business owners from around the globe (www.sba.gov).

If you take a moment and think about the number of industries and business types, there are only about 1170 different business types to choose from (www.smallbusinessnotes.com). If you do the math, there are a lot of people to compete with. This shouldn't intimdate you. As long as you are practicing the correct behaviors, you should be able to go from a good business owner to a great business owner.

One way for you to do this is to build long-lasting relationships with each and every current or potential customer/client you come in contact with. This doesn't mean you have to become everyone's best friend. I have personally tried that and it made me miserable. Now, I'm not telling you to be unfriendly. That's completely opposite of what I'm saying. I'm telling you to be friendly with everyone, but don't be too friendly to the point you will be disappointed if the person doesn't want to do business with you.

Everyone has different objectives, different thoughts, and different ideas of who they would like to be friends with and/or do business with. All you have to do is treat everyone with the utmost respect and friendliness and they will want to come back to you for their business needs time and time again.

Next, always be available to those who matter most. Believe it or not, if you don't answer your phone, you could potentially lose a lot of money. Today, people are exceedingly impatient and want their needs taken care of immmediately. If your potential or current client tries to reach you and you don't answer the phone, they not only will not leave you a message, but they will go to the next person on the list without any thought, remorse, or hesitation.

If you aren't able to talk on the phone, do your very best to answer it just to tell the person their call is important to you and you will call them back as soon as possible. This behavior goes along way in the world of business because there is so much less personal touch with technology nowadays that people feel like you or other people don't care.

Lastly, when someone chooses to do business with you, make sure to show your gratitude and appreciation. Remember, you worked extremely hard to acquire your customers. You don't want to waste all that money and time on trying to acquire new customers when repeat customers are exponentially more satisfied, easier to sell to, and can build your business much faster than dealing with new customers every day by sending your referrals.

One of the best ways to do this is to send your customers a "Thank You" card and to keep in touch with them on a regular basis. You don't have to call them every week to see how they're doing or if they need anything. This behavior will annoy them and they won't want to do business with you any longer.

All you have to do is send each customer a quarterly card. Make sure each card provides value to your customers whether it be for a Birthday, Holiday, or any other special event. Don't forget to tell your customers about your latest promotions but keep in minimal. These cards are not to sell your customers so be very careful and thoughtful about what you say. A perfect service for doing this is called SendOutCards (www.sendoutcards.com). If you haven't heard of it before, it's a must-see.

Although there are many ways to move your business from Good to Great, just remember to always go above and beyond for your customers. Afterall, without them, you don't have a business nor income.

Creating Customer Loyalty - ISSUE 12 - 9/9/11

In today's marketplace, you must work very hard to increase the loyalty of and learn how to build relationships with customers. With so many people working to do the exact same thing you are, you can't afford to let any of them go. Obviously, you don't want to annoy your customers to death, but you can provide consistent value to them and they will greatly appreciate you, your efforts, your business, your mission, your passion, your level of customer service, and much more.

If you take a look at what the most successful companies are doing, you will quickly see they have some type of way they have created customer and brand loyalty. How you go about doing this depends significantly on your business and the demographics of your customers. For example, if you own a construction company, you probably don't want to write a weekly newsletter to your clients. However, if you’re an Internet based business, writing a weekly newsletter could be extremely detrimental to your success.

Instead, try sending the less-inclined clients a mouse-pad with your company name printed on it and have your company logo and tag-line on it, as well. If you want to go a step further, make the mouse-pad have a slot for a picture. This way your client can slide in a picture of his family or favorite sports team.

Now that you have a better idea of how to provide value to your customers, try being creative. The idea is to set yourself apart from the rest of the companies competing for your customer's business and to be the first person/company your customer thinks about when they are in need of your product and/or service.

As I mentioned previously, you can't afford to let your customers go once you have attained them. There is another company just like yours knocking on their door everyday and you can't leave anything to chance. You have to build the relationship and nourish your customer. You want to think of each customer as a precious diamond. If you leave it alone, it will be lost forever.

Here are some examples of ways you can increase your sales, grow your business, and of course, create customer loyalty:

1) Create a VIP program. Many companies already do this. They offer an in-store debit card for you to use whenever you visit their store. Some companies even give you FREE stuff when you spend a specific amount of money. This is genius! Your customers will want to spend more money with you because they know there's a reward waiting for them on the other end.

The best example of this is Starbucks. Starbucks has created a loyal world-wide following. They have the best VIP program around. They make you feel like a million bucks and they even give you a Gold Card with your name on it. Once you earn enough stars, you get a very nice postcard in the mail for a free coffee any way you like it. To learn more, visit your local Starbucks or go to www.starbucks.com.

2) Write a weekly newsletter. No matter what type of business you own, you are most likely an expert in your industry. Even if you aren't, it doesn't matter. Get to know your customers’ behaviors, interests, dislikes, etc. This will provide you with valuable insight into what to write about. Each newsletter should be packed with "value" and not sales pitches. If you focus your time and energy on the former rather than the latter, you will have life-long success.

Your customers are bombarded with the equivalent of 5GB of information every day -- equivalent to 33,333 web pages, 500,000 emails, 1,250 downloaded mp3 songs, 14 hours video streaming, or 185 hours of music streaming -- most of which are sales pitches. This is astronomical! These sales pitches can be in any form -- TV, Radio, Billboards, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites, Emails, Newsletters, etc.

Your customer-base has to ignore 99.9% of all these messages because it’s information overload. Remember, you want to set yourself apart. You don’t want to be like all the rest. Make your customers excited to read each week's installment. Make them want more. Don't make them block you out because you are annoying, pestering, and always trying to take their money.

3) Build Life-Long Relationships. This is easily done and most of the time, overlooked. Make your customers feel good about themselves. Most people are so busy nowadays they don’t have time for a lot of friendships so to some people, their professional friendships are the most important to them. Get to know your customers on a personal level. If nothing else, make sure you know their name, their spouse’s name, and their children's names.

Believe it or not, this is not done enough anymore. People just don’t care about other people like they used to. This is why this behavior is so powerful. Getting to know someone on a personal level is very simplistic and can make or break your business. If you have a hard time remembering people’s names, write them down on a 3x5 index card along with the information about them, their hobbies, their birth date, and their family. Start creating a Rolodex you can quickly access when you are speaking with them on the phone and ask them about them. Never focus on yourself.

Another great exercise is to repeat the person’s name at least three times in the first meeting you have with him. This sounds funny but it really works. You will be blown away at how many names you will begin to remember and you always want to greet him by his name when you speak to him on the phone or see him in person.

These are just a few ways to create customer loyalty. As I mentioned previously, be creative. Please share your thoughts and ideas with us on how you create customer loyalty with your customer base. info@suitedmarketing.com. We’d really like to hear from you and may even feature you in an upcoming article.

Power of Visualization - ISSUE 11 - 8/1/11

Imagine you are a pro golfer named 'Tiger Woods.'  You have been golfing since you were five-years-old.  You remember the days when your dad would drop his keys on the ground in front of you while you were in the middle of your back-swing to teach you how to tune out every distraction around you.

You are now a grown man and are in The Tournament of Champions called The Masters.  You have been having a rough day.  The ball just doesn't seem to be landing where you want it to because you have been plagued with injuries over the last few years.  All of a sudden, you realize you haven't been doing the #1 most important task your father taught you growing up--visualization.

You tell yourself you are going to visualize your next shot going into the hole.  You step up onto the tee-box of the 12th hole.  The crowd is cheering and you hear a few brave fans yelling, "Come on Tiger!  You can do it!"  You don't want to disappoint your fans any longer so you take a deep breath, stare down at the flag 350-yards away, and close your eyes momentarily.  You have played this course many times over the years and you can practically see the entire course in your head.

While standing there with your eyes closed, you visualize yourself standing with your legs shoulder width apart, your hands grasping the club with your knuckles aligned perfectly, and your eyes staring down at the Nike logo on the ball.  You visualize yourself taking in a deep breath while slowly bringing up the club into your back-swing, twisting your body to gain as much power as humanly possible, and exploding all your power into the ball.  You can see the ball souring through the air and towards the pin at an immense speed.  You see the ball landing and bouncing twice before rolling and knocking into the pin.  You have a hole in one!

But wait!  You aren't done.  You open your eyes and realize you were just visualizing the entire event.  Your body momentarily felt a surge of adrenaline because you know your mind can't tell the difference between visualization and reality.  Your mind can only see images and doesn't differentiate between the two.

You then take a step up to the tee and quickly replay the event back in your head before committing yourself to the real deal.  You're finally ready.  It's time to make the visual into reality.  To your amazement, the events play out exactly how you envisioned them with the ball souring through the air, landing, bouncing twice, and rolling directly into the pin.  The ball drops.  You have a hole in one!  Your fans cheer and root and you hear the same few fans say, "Great job Tiger!  I knew you could do it!"

This type of event is extremely common of professional athletes and other successful people, alike.  They have been taught these basic principles since they were young and have gone on to accomplish many great things.  This basic principle can be used to accomplish any goal you have whether it be envisioning yourself as CEO of your company or even as basic as finishing a small project for a client.

Your mind is a powerful tool.  It's up to you whether you are using to your advantage or disadvantage.  As I mentioned before, your mind doesn't know the difference between what you are envisioning inside your head or what you are actually doing in reality.  All too often, people are their worst enemy, and too few people use this technique to help them better themselves.  Use this technique in everything you do and before you know it, you will be using it to your advantage.

If you would like to learn how to use this powerful technique to your advantage, send us an email (info@suitedmarketing.com) or give us a call (888-875-1185).  We are here to assist you in accomplishing all your goals.
"You focus on what you do best. We focus on your success."

Best Google Products

undefined

• Top 10 Google Products You Forgot All About
• List of Google Products - Wikipedia
• What Google is All About
• The Top 15 Google Products for People Who Build Websites
• Google's Top 10 Products (More or Less)

How to Create a Digital Signature in Nine Easy Steps - ISSUE 10 - 5/11/11

Have you thought to yourself...how nice it would be to digitize your signature for important documents in a digital world?

We are here to show you how easy it is to do step-by-step using Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.

www.suitedmarketing.com

1) Take Picture of your signature on a piece of paper.

2) Save picture to computer.

3) Open picture in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5

4) Select signature using Magic Wand

5) Right-click signature and choose Layer Via Cut

6) Right-click background and choose Delete Layer

7) Choose paint bucket and white background then fill

8) Fill in the rest of the gaps with the paint bucket

9) Crop and Save your digital signature. That wasn't too bad, now was it?

Don't have or know how to use Dreamweaver?
We will create a digital signature for you.

www.suitedmarketing.com
shane.russell@suitedmarketing.com
Visit our Library

Why is Marketing Your Business so Crucial? ISSUE 9 - 5/5/11

In today's world, the small business owner rules. However, not all small business owners are created equal and the only way to prove that to the rest of the world is through Marketing. Marketing allows you to build value, brand awareness, and trust with the public. How will they know who you are unless they can see you? If you don't constantly market your business to your potential clientele, you will be lost in a sea of options. You will not be able to set yourself apart and you will not be successful... guaranteed! Marketing is the single-most important aspect to developing a successful business.

As you may already be aware, large companies are the most obvious big-time marketers because they have the resources to create brand awareness by positioning themselves in front of your eyeballs every opportunity they can whether through email marketing, web ads, television commercials, print ads (magazines, newspapers, periodicals, etc.), billboards, mobile applications, social networking (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace), direct mailers, radio spots, sporting events, and much, much, more.

Everywhere you look, you see an Ad enticing to buy something that you "can't live without!" In fact, the average American is bombarded with about 5GB of information daily. That's the equivalent of 35,000 web pages of information per day. If you aren't staying at the forefront of your clientele's mind, you will be spit out and tossed out the other end, especially since most small business owners don't have the budget necessary to compete in the big leagues.

No need to worry, there is light at the end of the tunnel. You don't need a million dollar marketing budget to create brand awareness. Instead, you need knowledge, expertise, and an investment of your time.

Some examples of marketing and creating brand awareness are as follows:

1. Write articles related to your business building trust and value for your clientele
• Your articles should offer tips and tricks to enrich people's lives.
2. Talk to as many people as you can
• People will do business with people whom they know and trust.
3. Partnerships and link exchange
• Look for ways to partner with other small business owners in a link exchange referring business to one another.
4. Join forums and discussion boards
• Offer high-value assistance to those people looking to solve problems related to your business
5. Create how-to videos
• You're the expert.  Teach people how to do what you do best.  
6. Conduct workshops
• Put together a free workshop related to your business and invite people from your community.
7. Write a Press Release or have a newspaper write an article about you
• Magazines and Newspapers are always looking for a good story.  Let the public know who you are and what you stand for.

There are endless possibilities.  You just have to be creative.  There are many, many ways to get your name and/or company name out to the public.  We are always here to help and always willing to assist.  All you have to do is reach out to us and we will guide you through the process.

The world is going through the largest paradigm shift in human history. You are living in the most exciting times known to man. Technology is rapidly changing and altering the way people live their lives, and especially conduct business. Big players such as Blockbuster, Borders, and even Circuit City are getting kicked to the curb and Internet startups such as Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu are becoming the big names in today's digital world with more emerging companies on the rise.

The companies who failed did so because they failed to change. The emerging companies are run by young, bright, and talented stars. If you want to become successful, you should mirror the successful companies who may or may not be a competitor. Mindfully watch and observe their behaviors and study each and every move they make.

We are one of those companies. Please visit www.suitedmarketing.com to learn more about our company, educational products, services, and promotions and our What We Do page for more information.







www.suitedmarketing.com
shane.russell@suitedmarketing.com

Visit our Library