Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

What’s YOUR Unique Value Proposition?

When was the last time you reviewed your Unique Value Proposition, or made sure it applied to your new products or service? Now is a good time to make sure your proposition speaks to the audience you intend to serve.

It’s tough to experience the success you’ve looking for if you don’t have something that sets you apart from your competitors. In case you’re new to this concept, we are referring to your unique value proposition (UVP), also called your unique selling proposition. Why should someone buy from you vs. anyone else? What’s the extra value can you offer? Take a close look at what you want to offer to people as part of your business model, then be prepared to answer the following questions from the start of your business, and continuously thereafter. These seemingly easy questions need to be answered:

1.     What do you offer?

Lay out the details of the product or service you plan to sell. What are its features? What does it do and what does it look like? For example, is it a 7-day e-course on how to set up a WordPress blog? Is it a 6-month coaching program that gives people direct access via email and Skype to you personally? Be very specific.

 

2. How does it solve customers’ problems?

How does your product offering solve your customers’ problems? State the problems your customer is facing, which you know from doing your market research. Describe how each feature of your product or service solves those problems. Think about how your customer would see your solution, not knowing you at all. If you can answer the question “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM) from the customer’s point of view, you’re already halfway there.

 

3. What’s different about it?

You must create a product or service that is distinct from your competitors. While it is possible to be successful by creating a “me-too” business, it will be much more difficult. How is your solution different from other people’s solutions? Are you offering something extra, such as training or additional services? Do you offer your product in multiple formats, such as audio and video? Do you provide extra tools to make your solution easier to use? If you can’t identify any features that are different about your product, now is the time to go back and create something.

 

4. Why should someone buy from you versus your competitors?

This will be one of the most important parts of your sales copy. It will also be the toughest part of creating your UVP, by far. Connect the problems your potential customers are facing, the features of your product, and how they solve those problems. Then pull in your extra “proof” of why people should buy from you.

Your testimonials of how well your solution works is great social proof. You might have a track record of experience in your industry. You could also have great examples of your solution in action. Which of these are most important to your market? Pick one or use them all depending on what you think your prospects need to hear.

If you really understand what your target customers want, and what your competitors are already offering, you’ll be able to identify just what you can add remarkable value, because you took the time to do your market research. When you put these pieces together, you’ll have your Unique Value Proposition. What’s Your Unique Value Proposition?

 

 

Barbara Jemmott is the founder and business strategist at Your Entrepreneurial Spirit. Her 4-point YES to Customer Acquisition Program (C.A.P.) allows her to work her passion which is helping entrepreneurial women grow their audiences and income, online. She got here through her 20+ years of experience helping businesses understand and implement systems, strategies and procedures to increase productivity as well implement change and streamline operations. With experience and responsibilities to design, develop and deliver training for small to large technology training initiatives for Fortune 100 companies, she brings “Big Business” expertise to the small business space. Learn more about Your Entrepreneurial Spirit and the YES to Customer Acquisition Program at www.yourentrepreneurialspirit.com

 

7 Easy Ways to Tap into the Power of Mobile Marketing

As a business owner, it’s your job to find ways to connect with your customers. We live in a mobile world where 73% of people have their phone on them at all times. If you are targeting Millennials, that number goes up to 87%! Are you doing enough to connect with your audience on the small screen?

A lot of business owners feel that mobile marketing is too complicated and too expensive. While there are some tactics that are more costly, there are a lot of things you can be doing as a small business owner to enhance your marketing strategy that is already in place. The reality is, your customers are likely multitasking with their phones throughout the day, so your marketing strategy should reflect that behaviour.

Here are 7 ways you can integrate mobile into your strategy while not breaking the budget.

  1. Have an event hashtag: While this might seem obvious, a lot of event organizers don’t use this in the best way. You need to make sure your hashtag is:
    • Unique: It’s hard to track the conversation if your hashtag is used for other things.
    • Not too long: Ease of sharing should be the goal and if your guests have to type in 14 characters each time they use it, it won’t get used as often as you’d like.
    • Clear: If your hashtag doesn’t make sense, you’ll likely see a lot of errors.
    • Active: Encourage the dialogue by assigning someone from your business to use it actively throughout the event.

And once you set it up, make sure you track it!

  1. Livestream content at an event: Who doesn’t want to see their name in lights? Set up screens around your event and show a stream of Tweets from attendees. It encourages more participation using your event hashtag.
  2. Post live from events: While you want your audience to engage with you, you also want to show that you are active. Posting to social throughout an industry or client event you are attending shows you are tapped into the latest trends in what you do.
  3. Run a social media contest: People are constantly on their phones and a contest encourages them to share content with you in mind. Either set up a photo contest or a scavenger hunt type of contest where users share a picture to their account and tag you in it and/or use a dedicated hashtag (see #1 for tips!).
  4. Have customers check in at your business or event: This one is great because it has a lasting impact when potential customers see how many people have checked in at your business. You can provide incentive in the form of a loyalty program or contest as well.
  5. Use text and other messenger apps: Text is a great way to communicate with your engaged customers by having them opt in to receive messages. Send special deals, new product information, announce contests, etc.
  6. Have a mobile-friendly site: this should be obvious by now, but many businesses don’t have a mobile-friendly site. Make it easy for your customers to browse using their smartphone.

As with any marketing strategy, you need to set out your objectives and goals before you choose what’s right for you.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Let's Play A Game

Sheralyn

Sometimes in this space we talk about communication. Well, ok – usually in this space communication is ALL we talk about!  Occasionally it’s tips and tools, sometimes it is general open-ended advice applicable to any business and today, we would like to share something we do each week in an effort to engage both new and existing customers. It might seem a little self-indulgent but we hope you’ll go along with us and possibly pick up some helpful advice along the way.

There are two things we do each week to engage and interact with our audience. If you’ve never followed the links at the bottom of this post in order to view our business facebook page, I invite you to do so, in order to see what it’s all about. Once there, you might consider how you can adapt the concept to best suit your business.  Perhaps you are hoping to drive more traffic to your website. Maybe your facebook page needs more likes. Either way, we encourage you to consider “having a conversation” with your customer, as a means to potentially increasing your bottom line.  In today’s digital economy, communication often takes on a new and unique meaning. Conversations don’t necessarily take place face to face and in fact, you may never meet your customer or client in person. How do you have a “conversation” without ever speaking a word? Well one of things we do at Writing Right For You is play games and share information!

Each week we play “Wordplay Wednesday”™ and “Fun Fact Friday.”™ Wednesday is an opportunity to engage followers in a challenging exercise usually involving homonyms. We interact with our audience as they attempt to guess the word of the day. Occasionally, a Timmies gift card is the prize. Playing our Wordplay Wednesday challenge drives traffic to our facebook page and website too. We engage and interact with both existing and potential customers in a light-hearted and fun way that involves absolutely no sales pressure whatsoever.  This is followed up each Friday with our Fun Fact word of the day where we share the weird and wonderful world of the English language, explaining the meaning behind such unusual words as “quidnunc.” (Yup, it really is a word!)

Not everything in business needs to be about “the sale.” By engaging customers in new and unique ways however, a sale might just be the end result. Consider what you can do to engage, interact and have a “conversation” with both new and existing customers, without ever picking up the phone. Stop by our page first….increase your vocabulary, share your new found knowledge with your own customers and hey, you might win a coffee while you’re at it!

 

As Owner and Principal partner of “Writing Right For You” Sheralyn is a Communications Strategist – working together with entrepreneurs to maximize profit through effective use of the written word. Looking for web content that works, blog articles that engage or communications strategies that help you get noticed?  Contact Sheralyn today. Sheralyn is also the mother of two children now entering the “terrible and terrific teens” and spends her free time volunteering for several non-profit organizations.

Sheralyn Roman B.A., B.Ed.

Writing Right For You

Communications Strategies that help you GET TO THE POINT!

416-420-9415 Cell/Business

writingrightforyou@gmail.com

What Is The Deal With Membership Sites?

Malene Jorgensen

A membership site as a business model is becoming a very interesting way of doing business. Many people have found that teasing some content in a webinar and then offering paid content to customers is a profitable way of doing business. For example, a personal coach gives a webinar on the importance of having a healthy life in all aspects.

Once the webinar is done, the creator will give a discount on a course or a membership deal that gives customers tools to get that ideal lifestyle. This can be PDFs, videos and other goodies, only accessible via a paid membership.

This is a business model that has grown tremendously over the past year. But as with any business model, this is not a guaranteed model. Even though some people have found success using this model, this is far from a successful one. Many people will simply copy concepts and information already used by professionals.

In addition, there are marketing hurdles, as webinars are best marketed on social media pages. But you will be competing with all other webinars and memberships available online.

If you can put your own twist on this membership business structure, feel free to try it out.

 

Malene Jorgensen is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. Jorgensen is passionate about online content, blogging, online business development and e-commerce. She owns an international media publishing company and a design studio. Jorgensen has written several books that are sold in over 50 countries. She is also obsessed with coffee and Twitter. You can reach Malene Jorgensen at Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Public Relations 101: What is it and what can it do for your business

CHuntly

Whether you are an entrepreneur looking to break into your industry or you are an established business of any size, your success is largely dependent on your reputation. Many different types of people can have an effect on your reputation such as customers, suppliers, employees and journalists. Their opinions of your business – good or bad – will affect the opinions of others.

Public Relations (PR) is part of your marketing strategy that focuses on managing your reputation through effective communication of your organizational message. It is the art of building and maintaining positive relationships and brand awareness in the public eye (AKA your target audience).

Simply put, PR is your strategy for getting your message – your story – out to your audiences. It is all about engaging your target audience(s) by connecting with them in some way. It should be complementary to your overall marketing and outreach strategies.

6 Key Factors of PR

  1. Media Relations: Building relationships with the media and other influencers with the goal of attaining editorial coverage (Not paid for). If you have ever read a story about one of your favourite brands, the latest celebrity gossip, or even a story about a politician, business owner, or prominent individual, chances are someone pitched that story angle to the media and they thought it was interesting enough to write about.
  2. Special Events/Experiential: Designed for both public and media outreach, these events usually have brand experience and/or informational components.
  3. Content Generation: Writing blogs and bylined articles both for your organization’s website as well as for other websites and publications is a great way to control your message.
  4. Industry/Competitive audits: Audits (research) will determine the best positioning for your organizational message in terms of making it stand out from your competitors.
  5. Crisis Strategies: As hard as you might try to maintain a positive image in the public eye, sometimes things go wrong. It could be a huge product recall, and it could be something as “small” as an internet troll leaving negative comments on your blogs. Having a crisis strategy in place before it happens is your best bet so you know exactly how to deal with it.
  6. Social Media: This is where there is a definite crossover with the rest of your marketing strategy. You need to make sure the messaging you are putting out on your social media channels fits with the rest of your outreach. It’s a great way to promote your story. It’s also a great way to showcase content across different mediums.

Why Your Business Needs PR

Your business would not go anywhere without some sort of customer, end user, network, or community of fans, which is why you need PR. You need to be able to reach them with your message.

PR helps your business to:

  • Connect with your target audience both through direct channels and infuencer touchpoints (working through people, media, and celebrities who influence your target audience).
  • Package your brand story for maximum effectiveness. A good PR strategy will create a foundation for your business to build its outreach and growth strategy.
  • Get your brand and organizational story in the public eye on your own terms (ie. You have some control of the messaging that is out there).
  • Define its voice. Your business is so much more than a brand name and a website. It has character, values, and purpose.
  • Utilize a variety of outreach channels so you can tailor your strategy to your budget and your organizational culture.

Maintaining a strong presence on multiple channels while reaching your target audience is priceless when it comes to building a business. Most people think the cost of running a successful PR strategy will be too much, but there are ways to work within any budget. Your reputation and business success depend on it.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making it unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Benefits, Not Features

selfy photo

Benefits, not features: this is the mantra I repeated perhaps every week to my class when I was teaching New Media Communications at Centennial College.  During our unit on writing for web, during our unit on social media: “Benefits, not Features”. I would tell my students that every time they are tempted to write the word “I”, they should consider how they might change it to “You”.

It is a great way to make sure you are really thinking about your clients or your customers, and not just talking about yourself: what are the benefits they are seeking?  What’s in it for them?  It’s what we generally want all advertising to do: Stop talking about yourself!

I found out the hard way how difficult this actually is when I recently delivered a pitch to a potential client, and said all the wrong things.  We were the right people for the job.  I knew what they needed and was certain we could deliver better than anyone else, and the only thing I needed to do in the pitch was convince them.

So I talked about all of the fabulous features that we had to offer: our media background, the fact that all of our employees were journalists , that I had worked in a newsroom…I talked about how we were usability experts and how experienced we were at dealing with very complex tech.

I used the word “I” A LOT.

And then: we didn’t get the job.  And I thought back to the questions they asked me that I was uniquely unprepared to answer and I realised how I had completely missed the mark, because I hadn’t at all addressed their actual need.  They needed to hear how working with us would make their lives easier, how it would save them money and time.  They wanted to know how to better manage their staff and streamline internal processes.  They wanted to hear how they would find our technology solution easy to understand and how it would make them feel on top of their game.

I spent all my time talking about how perfect the project would be for us, about our features, and none of the time talking about the benefits that working with us would bring to them.

Benefits, not Features.  Listen to yourself: are you saying “I”?  Turn it into a “You” and see what happens!

Christine McGlade is a Business Analyst, Content Strategist, and Usability Consultant.  With over 25 years experience in the media business, Christine helps small business, social enterprise, and Not for Profits how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow their business.  Learn more about Christine at analyticalengine.ca

It's Time to "TALK" about Social Media

Sheralyn

As the saying goes “unless you’ve been hiding under a rock” there is a very good chance that you’ve not only heard of facebook and LinkedIn but are an active and engaged participant on both. We are reminded constantly of the need to be on social media, to maintain a social media presence and to interact with our customers by employing this type of technology. How much is too much however? At what point does your message become de-valued, meaningless white noise amongst the clamor for customer attention? At the same time, how much is too much for you, as a person trying to conduct business? Social media has a huge role to play in terms of its ability to distract and consume your time voraciously in a non-productive way. Let’s talk about how much we “talk.”

The word “talk” was very deliberately placed in quotes. Why? Because today, due primarily to the influence of social media, we don’t do nearly enough actual talking.  Our interactions with others on a human scale are some days, literally non-existent while our “interactions” on social media are exhaustive!  Social Media has created a “doors wide-open” philosophy where we are encouraged to post, post, post, often times with little regard for the quality of the posting.  There are entire blogs related to how often you should post and the rule of three has become the norm:  post three times sharing information, tips, tools, techniques or free giveaways, before posting any targeted and specific attempt at soliciting business. The problem is we are often left searching for content of value, re-circulating posts that have already made the internet rounds several times over and which are, at best, tenuously related to our business. Currently, “curated content” is the new buzzword. Let’s look at what that really is. Curated content is regurgitated. It’s a nice word for taking someone’s work, cobbling it together with other similar posts and offering them up under your banner for public consumption. Often, I find an attention-grabbing headline has been shared to a page but when you click on the link, the content has nothing to do with the business sharing it. Clearly this is an example of someone not vetting content or sharing information of value but rather, a person simply caught up in the rush to post, post, post.

Original content is king and making sure that it’s laser-focused and related to your business is paramount. Self-employed entrepreneurs must fight for attention amongst big business so it is particularly incumbent upon them to ensure content is relevant. More so, it is critical that you don’t get caught up in the minutiae yourself, trawling through LinkedIn in search of content but getting sidetracked along the way looking at what all your old high school friends are doing now. The same is true with facebook. As entrepreneurs, with no IT department to block your access, and no one to answer to other than yourself, it’s far too easy to flip through facebook laughing at the antics of your nephew as he plays with that cute new puppy. Social Media for business requires both social responsibility and effective time management.  Set aside just 15 minutes twice a day to touch base with your followers. Be very regimented about that time (use the alarm on your Smartphone) and before you hit the share button employ the “pause and reflect” philosophy. Ask yourself “is this of value, relevant or potentially helpful to my clients?” If the answer is no, don’t share. If you haven’t even read the content, definitely don’t share it and if you really don’t have anything to say – that’s fine too. Just as in life, don’t “talk” for the sake of talk, but rather, talk when you have something meaningful to say. After all, you don’t want to be the person “blocked” by your customers because they were fed up with a continuous and largely irrelevant barrage of “curated content.”

As Owner and Principal partner of “Writing Right For You” Sheralyn is a Communications Strategist – working together with entrepreneurs to maximize profit through effective use of the written word. Looking for web content that works, blog articles that engage or communications strategies that help you get noticed?  Contact Sheralyn today. Sheralyn is also the mother of two children now entering the “terrible and terrific teens” and spends her free time volunteering for several non-profit organizations.

Sheralyn Roman B.A., B.Ed.

Writing Right For You

Communications Strategies that help you GET TO THE POINT!

416-420-9415 Cell/Business

writingrightforyou@gmail.com

LinkedIn / Facebook / www.writingrightforyou.weebly.com

What’s your gratitude policy?

sandra

Customer loyalty is something that we all strive for. Whether you’re a small business owner or a CEO of a multi-billion dollar empire, we are nothing if we can’t retain our current base of customers or clients. So how do we do this? Is it about points programs, birthday or holiday freebies and membership discounts, or is there more to it?

We’ve all heard the complaints about some of the loyalty programs out there. The notion that there are self-serving and benefit the company more than the customer isn’t anything new. You know the ones I’m talking about – where you feel like you have to spend thousands of dollars to earn something worth a few hundred (if you’re lucky!).

So how do we show our gratitude to loyal customers in a way that makes them feel good about their continued patronage of your business? The best thing to do of course is ask them! Surveys are a great way to find out exactly what your customers want when it comes to loyalty programs. We could think we have put together the best program in the world, but if it doesn’t leave our clients feeling appreciated, then we’ve missed the mark!

While surveys are a great tool, you have to provide incentive for people to complete them. Again, just like the loyalty programs, the prize for completing the survey has to be something that your customers actually want! Look at what your most popular product or service is and see what kind of reward you can create that will allow you to get enough responses to your survey that you are confident it actually represents your client base.

Just like any relationship, the relationship we have with our customers and clients has to be cultivated on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to stop with loyalty programs.   We can actually start picking up the phone and reaching out to our customers. This isn’t a sales conversation; this is really an informal survey. It’s a conversation that asks how things are going for them in relation to the product or service you provide. Ask if there’s any way that you could improve their satisfaction with the business they do with you. Actually tell them that you are grateful for their continued business!

I’ve heard it said that any relationship without reciprocity will die and I believe that applies to all relationships, personal and professional. Customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted. The competition out there is fierce and there are limits to how low we can take our prices and how fast we can deliver our services. If we want to retain our loyal customer base, we have to ensure that they know that we value their business. They need to know that we’re not taking the fact that they spend their time and money with us for granted.

I’ve heard it said that gratitude is the greatest multiplier of good. When a customer not only gets quality products and services, but also feels appreciated and respected by the company they do business with, it can only benefit you and your business. When potential customers here how much you care about and respect the people you do business with, they’ll be lining up to work with you!

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve! Connect: www.embraceyourdestiny.ca www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook www.twitter.com/sandradawes

What Is The Deal With Membership Sites?

Malene Jorgensen

A membership site as a business model is becoming a very interesting way of doing business. Many people have found that teasing some content in a webinar and then offering paid content to customers is a profitable way of doing business. For example, a personal coach gives a webinar on the importance of having a healthy life in all aspects.

Once the webinar is done, the creator will give a discount on a course or a membership deal that gives customers tools to get that ideal lifestyle. This can be PDFs, videos and other goodies, only accessible via a paid membership.

This is a business model that has grown tremendously over the past year. But as with any business model, this is not a guaranteed model. Even though some people have found success using this model, this is far from a successful one.  Many people will simply copy concepts and information already used by professionals.

In addition, there are marketing hurdles, as webinars are best marketed on social media pages. But you will be competing with all other webinars and memberships available online.

If you can put your own twist on this membership business structure, feel free to try it out.

Malene Jorgensen is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. Jorgensen is passionate about online content, blogging, online business development and e-commerce. She owns an international media publishing company and a design studio. Jorgensen has written several books that are sold in over 50 countries. She is also obsessed with coffee and Twitter. You can reach Malene Jorgensen at Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

“I need a social media person” – Do you really need a social media person? – Part 1

Karima

After reading the recent article “Is Social Media Worth It For Small Businesses?” on Forbes.com, I realized that one of the reasons small businesses are disappointed with their social media hires is because they don’t know the roles and skills required to set themselves up for success on social media.

In the 15 years I have been dedicating my practice to helping businesses expand their online presence and (in the last 6 years) growth utilizing social media, I have heard business owners and top-level executives say “I need a social media person”. To me, this affirmation equates to saying “I need doctor” and once you’ve said it, chances are you will need a specialist. It’s the same with social media.

Social Media as a tool for growth

Unlike large organizations who typically have a social media (senior) manager and 1) with multiple direct reports or 2) agencies who manage specific areas of social media, small and medium organization are left to hire a jack-of-all trades who scramble to do EVERYTHING on social media.

Let me back up a little… Although a lot of young people hold Social Media positions, the top level positions are usually given to more seasoned marketing or digital professionals because although social media is about Facebook and Twitter, and blogs and Instagram, it’s also and primarily about business and strategic thinking. Now that the wonders of social media have spread to the world of business, engaging on social media has become a necessity for survival. And your business needs to jump on that bandwagon before your competitors overtake you!

Social media allows you to respond to your customers’ wants and needs immediately. You can boost sales, and people will be more receptive to your message. And let’s not leave out the most important fact of all: your competition is already there.

So, how do you build a solid team while maintaining cost-effectiveness?

You must have a business-focused social media professional come and do a diagnostic of your needs. Whether your company is just launching or is already in business, our program is designed to support you and help grow your online presence.

Identify and define roles

By identifying the roles and skills it takes to make your business successful, you will better reach out to the right people and organize their time based on needs and objectives. Below are some of the primary social media roles and skills that will get you going fast.

  • Strategist: A strategist, pretty much like all strategists in every industry, researches, benchmarks, and creates a plan and tactics. The strategy, when done well, identifies opportunities for growth and for It also determines how and where to invest to meet business objectives. A social media strategist is no different.
  • Project coordinator/manager: A project coordinator is someone who will keep you on budget, on time, and within scope. A fabulous project manager will also identify opportunities along the way and allow you to expand your reach and objectives. Hiring a part-time social media project manager is the key to your success.
  • Content producer: Online content can be blogs, videos, Facebook updates, Tweets, Instagram and Pinterest pictures or even YouTube videos. There is a plethora of types of content and platforms ranging from real-time to scheduled, from on the go to scripted, and from organic to paid. The importance of content is to identify your objectives and build a strategy around them.
  • Community manager: A true community manager builds and grows online An online community is a virtual community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, etc.). Those who wish to be a part of an online community usually have to become a member via a specific site and necessarily need an internet connection.

I will explore other roles and skills in an upcoming blog post.

Why are online communities important for businesses?

Being a member of online communities for businesses and continually establishing and maintaining online relationships is critical to the success of your business. With the extreme popularity of social media, many people are excited about interacting and developing relationships with others whom they feel they can trust and who they consider experts in their industry.

At the heart of your success is the human element. Once people get to know you, and you get to know them, they will want what you are offering and will gladly tell others about what you are offering too.

Karima-Catherine is the co-founder of Red Dot Digital, a digital agency that strives to deliver top-notch solutions to various clients.  Red Dot Digital drives real, meaningful, quantifiable business outcomes for companies. Karima-Catherine is also the co-moderator of #MMchat, a Twitter weekly forum which focuses on business, marketing and social media.  

Connect with Karima-Catherine:

karima@reddotdigital.net

Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest

 

Why Blogging Is Important To Every Business Owner?

Malene Jorgensen

 

 

You may have heard that you need to have a blog on your professional business website as a marketing tool. But once you have created the blog, you may not have any blogging ideas that would match your company mission. This is one of the common struggles of having a business blog.

However, there are three major reasons why blogging is crucial, especially if you are a small business owner, trying to gain credibility in the massive market place. You need to create a trustworthy brand, and that can be challenging if you are hiding behind a website. In addition, a blog opens a gateway between yourself and your customers, and lastly, there are technical benefits of business blogging.

 

CREATING AN OPEN DOOR

When you think about blogging, you may be thinking about individual blogs, where people write about their favourite foods, their feelings and their thoughts. Of course, you should not use this kind inspiration for your business blog. But you should use the structure for your website.

A company can create a gateway of communication with customers by having a blog. The blog should answer common questions in a way that does not come across as a sales pitch. For example, if you are selling insurance, you want to write articles about why insurance is important. You can share case studies, address common myths, and answer questions from potential customers.

If the idea of a blog doesn’t work with your business, you could sell it as a column instead. This may work better if you are using yourself as a brand or business image.

 

ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS

A blog isn’t about you. It really is about your customers. It is about what you can offer them. And this should be a two-way street. Often, people will disable the comments section on the blog, so people cannot respond to the article. And this is a big mistake.

People want answers when they find your article, and they will often look for a comments section to ask that question. This is your chance to impress your potential customer and reel them in. Don’t disable comments and miss this great opportunity. Use your blog to establish strong relationships with people who are genuinely interested in your products or services.

 

MORE EXPOSURE

Lastly, having a blog on your business’ domain helps you in technical ways as well. Every time you publish an article, you are increasing the amount of individual pages you have on the Internet about your business. Other pages include your “about” page, your “contact” page and your “home” page.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, you may not think that a single page will do much for your exposure, but you are not competing with every other page on the Internet. You are only dealing with those pages that are offering the exactly same thing as you. So, with a healthy keyword density and valuable articles, you are well on your way to a successful business blog.

Malene Jorgensen is an entrepreneur, author and speaker. Jorgensen is passionate about online content, blogging, online business development and e-commerce. She owns an international media publishing company and a design studio. Jorgensen has written several books that are sold in over 50 countries. She is also obsessed with coffee and Twitter. You can reach Malene Jorgensen at Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram 

Social Strategy SOS

SocialStrategy

In the third post in this series, I discussed why you need to consider your customers as “users” and how you go about creating a User Persona to help you target your Content Strategy to your ideal users. Over the next 3 weeks of this series, we’ll finish fleshing out the remaining pieces of the content strategy puzzle, and this week we’ll tackle what is possibly the most perplexing and time consuming part of your digital business: your Social Media Strategy.

Do I really HAVE to have a social media strategy?

Social strategy is complex: there are so many social networks, and sometimes it feels like there is a new one every day.  How does a business owner know which ones to pay attention to, and which ones to ignore?  Engaging in Social Media can be extremely time consuming with little visible return on investment: It can be difficult to clearly see how a social media strategy can help your business.

But social media can also be a virtual goldmine of new customers.  It can be a way that you can develop a relationship of trust with your customers, engage in customer service activities, and even recruit new employees. Social media is here to stay and it is an essential part of every business owner’s sales, marketing, and business development toolkit.   A smart, targeted social strategy can deliver brand awareness, new customers, and even conversions, but it is important to understand why you’re doing it and what exactly you should do, and this is unique to each and every business.

Conversion has changed – forever.

Think about how your customers convert nowadays.  It used to be that customers would become aware of your brand or product through a limited number of expensive and highly controlled channels: perhaps through a television, radio, or newspaper ad, or perhaps through word of mouth.  Their decision to buy was made primarily at point of purchase, that is, when they saw your product on the shelf in the store: the “first moment of truth”, as it was called in the traditional marketing model.

Google has recently described a new model that very accurately captures the new way consumers become aware of, and make decisions to purchase, products and services today, and they call it the Zero Moment of Truth.  The Zero Moment of Truth is all about digital discovery: the extensive searching, recommendation reading, and consulting with Facebook friends that we now engage in before making a purchasing decision.  For products and services big and small, we rarely convert until we have had at least 7 and sometimes as many as 17 digital “impressions” or touch points with a brand.

ZMOTequation

This Zero Moment of Truth is perhaps the most compelling reason that each and every brand, every business selling every product or service, needs to ensure that when the consumer is engaging in this foraging behaviour, that they are there, building trust and clocking impressions that may lead to conversion.  These impressions come from your business website and your social media activities, especially what people are saying with you and about you in social media.

There may be a small segment of the population that doesn’t use social media, but this is a rapidly shrinking segment.  The fastest growing segment of social users is adults 45-54, and more and more seniors come online every day.  In many ways, Social Media IS the Internet, and the Internet IS Social Media.  It’s difficult today to grow your business without a strategy that covers how, for whom, and how often you will engage your customers in the two-way conversation that Social media has to offer as a marketing tool.

So Many Platforms, So Little Time.

Scheduling tools like Hootsuite make it easy to track and control the frequency of your social media communications, and they make it easy to post the same content simultaneously to multiple social platforms.  But while it may be tempting to try and broadcast your messages to multiple platforms at once, it is rarely a good idea.  In his book “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook”, Gary Vaynerchuck makes a strong argument that business owners should heed: not all social platforms are created equal.  The kind of storytelling that works really well on Facebook for a particular user will not work on Twitter, or Linked, In, or Pinterest, or….

Knowing which platforms to prioritise is perhaps the most difficult part of your social strategy but also the most critical.  You stand to lose a lot of precious time if you prioritise a platform that really doesn’t work for your business, and you can even erode or undermine your brand if you post something clearly inappropriate for that platform: so how does a savvy business owner choose?

There are three factors to consider:

1) What are the various social platforms “good at”?

2) Which of the social platforms do your users tend towards?

2) What is the nature of your business conversion funnel?

1) A Brief Primer on Social Media

There is much crossover between the various major social media platforms: all of them are, of course, social, meaning they are about engaging in a dialogue with others.  But because each one operates in a slightly different way with different rules of engagement, they require different kinds of Storytelling.

Twitter

  • Has over 230 million monthly active users
  • Twitter followers are 60% more likely to recommend you than a Facebook Liker
  • The average age of a Twitter user is much higher than Facebook, at 39 years
  • 70% of Twitter users expect to hear back from a brand, and 53% want that response within the hour
  • Twitter is good for establishing thought leadership, expertise, for sharing news, and for customer service and customer relationship management

Facebook

  • Facebook is the largest social platform in the world: if it were a country it would the third most populated, after only China and India
  • Facebook does have an influence on purchasing behaviour, even if not a direct one. Your Facebook fans are more likely to convert than non-fans.
  • Facebook is great for visibility in social search
  • Facebook is getting into the retail game with Facebook shops if you are selling a product
  • The new killer app on Facebook is the short video

YouTube

  • Has moved from being primarily a video search engine to a powerful social platform where many brands have been born and built. Khan academy, for example, and Justin Bieber.
  • Web videos are a great way to reach out to new and current customers and generate inbound links to your website
  • Because it is owned by Google, embedding YouTube videos on your website gives those pages a double-boost in Search Engine Optimisation

Google Plus

  • Great for local businesses, reviews, and Google search “juice”
  • Ties your business address into a Google Map and ties into other Google services

Linked In

  • The largest professional network, you must have a personal page on LinkedIn; it is far more common to connect with business contacts on LinkedIn than to keep a Rolodex or stack of business cards or emails.
  • Linked in generates 200% more leads than the other social networks

Pinterest

  • The fastest growing as of December 2012
  • Pinterest is very visual, about ‘things’, items they find interesting, but it works even for small businesses that aren’t visually stimulating.
  • Pinterest is good for referral traffic because the source of the pin is a link to your site, especially images you might be posting in your blogs. Even if you don’t maintain a page or presence on Pinterest, installing a “pin it” button on your website pages is a good idea

2) Where Are Your Users Hanging Out?

The short answer is, everywhere.  But you have to narrow that down a little to come up with a feasible strategy.  It’s important to note here that there are multiple social platforms not listed above, many of them attracting niche audiences where you might find a treasure trove of users interested in exactly what you have to offer.  This article outlines 60 niche social networks and it is worth doing a bit of digging to see if any of them resonate with your business goals.  Another tool that you can use is socialmention.com; social mention searches blogs and social networks for topics or brand mentions and can be a good way of finding out where conversations are taking place that align with the kinds of conversations you want to be having with your customers.  And social crawlytics at socialcrawlytics.com can be very insightful, generating a report that will tell you which pages of your website have been shared in social media, where they have been shared, and even by who.

3) What is the Nature of Your Conversion Funnel?

Typically, the more expensive the product or service, the more touch points the consumer will require before purchasing.  What are you selling, and how many touch point’s do you think your customers need before they buy?

Is your product or service more suited to an active discovery process or a passive discovery process?  For example, if I need an emergency plumbing repair I tend to engage in some very active discovery to find one.  I search Google and will probably call the first few service providers I see.  Social Media is better at passive discovery, at marketing products, services, and ideas that consumers don’t need right away or in an emergency.

Do you have a lot of competitors, so will need more touch points or more visibility in the market, or very few competitors?  Are you in the B2B or B2C market?

How much customer service does your product or service require?  And how much brand awareness do you already have in the market?
SocialStrategySOSWorksheetImage

Document the answers to these questions on this worksheet; by indicating on the sliders in the worksheet where your business lands on these various conversion factors will give you some pointers towards which platforms you might want to prioritise as well as the frequency of posting you might want to consider.  Note that the worksheet is more art than science and is intended only as a starting point: they only way to really get good at social media is by doing it, so start small, perhaps with your LinkedIn page, and build slowly using the worksheet as a guide.

The biggest question the Content Strategist has to answer is “Do I need a website AND a Social Strategy”?  The answer is yes, for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is the findability of your content in Search.  Next month, we’ll cover Search Engine Optimisation and Influencer Marketing, the two biggest ways you can make your website work for your business.

For more resources and information on Content Strategy and to download a detailed description of what content strategy entails, go to analyticalengine.ca/resources or download a Content Strategy Info graphic at http://bit.ly/1qY9tYp.

Christine McGlade is a Business Analyst, Content Strategist, and Usability Consultant.  With over 25 years experience in the media business, Christine helps small business, social enterprise, and Not for Profits how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow their business.  Learn more about Christine at analyticalengine.ca

In Content Strategy, Your Customers are Users  

Arrow_Sign

In the second post in this series, I outlined why your governance model, or the “How do I do this?” part of your content strategy, is a good place to start planning. Over the next 4 weeks of this series, we’ll go through a full content strategy, and this week we’ll tackle the most important person in the content strategy room: your customer or as you will come to call him or her: Your User.

Content Strategy and User Experience Design

This week I attended a User Experience Design Conference, and I was struck by something that is important to consider as we embark on this month’s installment of your content strategy road map.  As the speakers at the conference described projects they had been working on and case studies of both successes and failures, I was struck by how there has been a real renaissance in the world of business over the last few years.  Now, so many businesses are taking a Design-Thinking approach to business planning and strategy.  And the lines between designing a business strategy, a content strategy, and a website are becoming very blurry.

Traditional business planning has often started with the product or the brand.  Now more and more businesses are taking a very customer-centric approach and taking pages from Design Thinking as they start their planning and strategy with the customer, or as we say in Design Thinking, with “Empathy for the User”.

Understanding the cares, context, capabilities and captivating factors of your User are the building blocks of a great business plan, and a great content strategy.

What is a “User”?

I am going to use the word “User” and not customer as I proceed to describe how we identify who they are, and create messages for them, in our content strategy.  Why do I use the word User and not customer?

It used to be that when we said “User” we meant only those customers who were going to your website.  But in his Book “Users Not Customers”, Aaron Shapiro makes the point that nowadays, every customer is a User, and thinking about them as Users allows us to always remember that they are coming to us for their own reasons, not ours:

“Users are defined as anyone who interacts with a company through digital media and technology.  There are lots of different types of users, and while they each have their own distinct interests and objectives, they all want digital tools to easily and quickly give them a leg up”, Shapiro says, “Today, a customer must be thought of in a new way: as one segment of users, one of the many types of people who interact with your company through the digital version of your organisation.  And they all want digital technologies to make their lives easier and better.”

Users aren’t just browsing, shopping, surfing.  Users are seeking value, utility, and help.  When we develop a content strategy based on empathy for that User, we need to understand who they are in a three dimensional portrait that we call a persona.

Personas: Not Just Demographics

Personas are detailed portraits of your users: usually you choose at most 3 or 4.  Personas are both an art and a science to create, because they are based both on facts or what your know about your Users AND they come from your imagination.  In order to create this three dimensional portrait of your User(s), you need to understand who they are across these 4 areas:

Care: What do they care about?  What are their pain points? What matters to them the most and what are the minimum expectations you’ll need to meet for them?

Context: In what context will they be when they find your website or social media?  This is not only a question of what device they might be using (for example, they might find you while using their smartphone on a crowded streetcar, or at their desktop computer in a cubicle at work) but also what time of day, what is their mood, their situation?

Capabilities: What are their technological capabilities? Are there any physical constraints they might have that will impact on how they are able to interact with you online (for example, are they older and therefore will very small text be hard to read, or might they have physical tremors that would make hitting very small buttons difficult?  Are they colour blind, as many men are?)

Captivate: This is the most elusive, but possible the most important area of focus.  What will really surprise and delight them? What are their secret desires that, if tapped into, will bring them un-matchable value and engage them in a real trust relationship with you?

How do I get to know my Users?

You can find out a lot about your users by looking at the analytics on your website, market research your company may have done, by speaking to your sales staff, or by examining competitor sites to “reverse engineer” who they are speaking to.

But to take a page from Design Thinking, the best way to get to know your Users is through observation: getting out there and meeting people, asking them questions and listening carefully to the questions that they ask you.

Can you observe your users using a competing product or even better your product?  Watching someone navigate your website is often a harrowing and eye opening experience.

And listen to what they say: jot down quotes and use their words, base your content strategy on their questions and their language.

Persona Templates

Having personas developed is not only critical for the development of your content strategy, you need them if you are going to have anyone else writing product pages or emails, blogging, or engaging in social media communications on behalf of your company.  Have them memorise the personas, and post the personas at their desk so they are always aware of who they are speaking to!

Here are a few sources for templates you can use to build your personas:

http://www.buyerpersona.com/buyer-persona-template

http://offers.hubspot.com/free-template-creating-buyer-personas

The Analytical Engine Persona Template

Your personas can be detailed or brief, but the main thing is that they are, for you, real: you want to have a clear picture in your head, and on paper, of who this person or these people are, because one of the biggest lessons to learn from the school of Design Thinking is: you are not your user!  You don’t want to design your content strategy for yourself, you want to design it for your users, to deliver value to them, to speak to them, to meet their needs at their level, and if you’re lucky and skilled, to surprise, delight, and captivate, and convert!

For more resources and information on Content Strategy and to download a detailed description of what content strategy entails, go to analyticalengine.ca/resources or download a Content Strategy Info graphic at http://bit.ly/1qY9tYp.

Christine McGlade is a Business Analyst, Content Strategist, and Usability Consultant.  With over 25 years experience in the media business, Christine helps small business, social enterprise, and Not for Profits how to leverage the power of the Internet to grow their business.  Learn more about Christine at analyticalengine.ca

CSR for Small Business?

sandra

It may seem odd to think of Corporate Social Responsibility as a small business owner, but I think that there’s no better time that now to start thinking about more than just your financial bottom line. If you give thought to how your business is impacting the world environmentally and socially when you’re small, you will have systems in place that will grow as the business grows.

Whether it’s choosing a cause that your business supports because there’s an alignment in each organizations core values or ensuring that you operate your business in an environmentally friendly way that reduces your carbon footprint, you don’t have to have a big operating budget to make a meaningful contribution. It can be easy to think that practicing social responsibility is something only large companies need to worry about because they have the resources to do “big things”, but small business has a role to play as well. While big business can do things on a national or global scale, small business owners can contribute on a local scale, supporting the communities that support them.

Success in business is all about relationships. It’s about building trust with not only your customers, but the community within which you operate your business. I’ve heard it said that a relationship without reciprocity will die and I believe that to be true for us as entrepreneurs and small business owners. We can’t become so consumed by the desire to turn a profit that we forget to give back to the community that supports us by buying our products or services.

When our local communities are thriving, as citizens and business owners we can’t help but benefit. It is in our best interest to build into our businesses a strategy for how we will give back. What can you do to make your community better? Maybe you can do a fundraiser for a local cause, or do a review of your operational practices to see where you can make “green” changes. You don’t have to figure it all out at once, but it’s something that you want to consider.

You don’t have to be a corporation to practice corporate social responsibility. I believe it may actually be easier to practice CSR as a small business owner because we have massive manufacturing plants to reconfigure and retool. We make small, but meaningful changes that will be sustainable as we grow and expand our businesses. What are you going to do to give back to the community that’s supporting you and your business?

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve!
Connect:
www.embraceyourdestiny.ca
www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny
www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook
www.twitter.com/sandradawes

What’s your definition of success?

Uchechi

If you’re a business owner, then it’s fair to say you’re in a state of constant striving. Whether it’s striving for increase in sales, profit, customers or client engagement, there is always some goal that you have and are always chasing. To be honest, I would say everyone fits this criterion, because it is a human need to always be reaching and striving for more success in our lives. 

It’s a good thing to strive for success and reach beyond where you’re at, but it’s also important to really sit down and define what that success means to you.  What does it look like? Oftentimes, we tend to strive for what others have put in our head as to what’s important. Or we see other’s, who we feel are successful and go after the same thing, not recognizing what it took for them to get there and more importantly what it’s costing them to maintain it.

I’ve had conversations with small business owners who want to turn their business into a huge empire. This is all well and good, but then they also tell me that family and time is #1, and they want to have flexibility to travel the world at leisure without being tied to things, and work minimum hours. Now, can you see how building and sustaining a huge empire and leisure time and family life may conflict? Also those that they admire in business who have built a huge empire are the very ones that say it cost them leisure time and quality family life. However, these individuals who are striving for this, do not take a look at the whole picture and to see if that definition of success (business empire) fits within their own definition of success. If it does not allow them to have quality family relationship and time, I say it does not fit within their definition. It is important to take a holistic look at what is it you want, and are chasing and see if it fits into your core beliefs and values. 

Another important reason to define what success means to you, is because it allows you to have a clear picture of what you want. I read somewhere that ‘you cannot achieve that which you cannot define’. Once you define it, you will have a clear picture of what it is you’re chasing after. You will also recognize all the opportunities that aligns with it, plus ones that may not be the right fit for you.

Your definition of success will change over time and that’s okay. Once you hit one goal, you will then have the need to hit another, which is a human condition that we all have.

We also go through periods of growth and development and what once was important is no longer so. This happened in my life. About 7 years ago, my sister and I opened up a 3000sqft wellness centre with a spa, fitness & yoga studio, and therapy clinic, employing various alternative health care practitioners. Now at that time, I was single and my sister and I did not have any kids. Over time, that wellness centre although it began to grow with more opportunities coming to us, demanded more of our time and energy managing such a large facility with so many staff and contractors. I remember how difficult and stressful it was for me shortly after having my son and trying to manage that business and being a new mom. Fast forward to now where my sister and I both have two kids each and time and family taking #1 priority in our lives. It became clear over the years that that particular dream of a big wellness center, was not in alignment to our core desires, especially during this stage of our life. We later sold the centre and transitioned our business into one where we can manage from both our home offices, with fewer overheads and staff to manage. This now fits our definition of success. 

So I challenge you this week to take a look at what “success” looks like for your business and share it with our community below!

 

Uchechi Ezurike-Bosse is a Business & Lifestyle Strategist, Speaker and Writer, but most importantly, a proud Mother and Wife. Uchechi is Founder of My Empowered Living (http://www.myempoweredliving.com) a website aimed at helping women shift their mindset and live their passion! Whether it’s starting and building their dream business, or helping them create a lifestyle they crave, Uchechi is the modern woman’s secret to success! Visit Uchechi at www.myempoweredliving.com to get her FREE online video training series The 4 Keys to your Business Success! This free 4-day business training reveals her 4 key strategies needed to build a profitable and successful business, and how to put them to work in your business!

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