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Now I do not buy into the whole concept of VIP we are all VERY important in my books, however if you promote an event and sell VIP tickets, you should definitely make it VIP. In today’s culture, VIP is more about convenience, it means to most people, line by-pass, quicker service, no waiting, and sometimes an all-inclusive deal with drinks and food. Recently, I went to an event and purchased VIP tickets for that reason, I did not want to stand in a line up to enter, to get drinks or food as I have an 8 month and this was a rare occasion to get out. Babysitter time, tick tock! Unfortunately my VIP experience did not meet my expectations the only benefit I received was the line bypass to enter the event. There were long drink lineups, the staff serving the drinks was not friendly and the food was not what was promised. In a nut shell my VIP ticket price did not deliver what was promised. As a small business owner, you may be considering a holiday VIP party for your customers, my advice, over deliver on what you promise. Here are 5 tips on how to make the VIP experience a hit!
We are well into the last quarter of the year and for many small businesses this is the time to really drive sales and for some, this time of the year can represent almost half of your annual sales. If you have not had the time to plan extensively for the holidays, here are 5 easy to implement ideas to help get you through the holidays and end the season with a bang. 1. Bundle related products and or services you sell for an attractive package deal and charge a higher price point for better margins. Customers will appreciate you making their life easier by creating a ready-to-give gift. 2. Create promotions. This could be in the form of an enter to win contest, a sales promotion on certain merchandise or a challenge for customers to enter their pictures on your website or social media sites for a chance to win a prize. For example cutest pet contest if you are a pet store. 3. Get active on social media sites. Promote your products, promotions and events on the social media sites you are already active on, this is not the time to learn a new platform. Decorate your page, use consistent imagery throughout all sites, and keep your message clear and concise. Also make sure you post regularly. 4. Decorate your website. Your website is essential to helping customers learn more about you, so make it interesting fresh and relevant to the season with captivating images. Also show off any promotions, new products, contests and offers you have going on. 5. Get together with other local retailers and create an event to help increase foot traffic for everyone. This could be as simple as a travelling holiday party where customers can stop by and enjoy a glass of wine while shopping. As a small business marketing consultant, I am always looking for new tools and tips that can help my clients excel in their business. In addition, it's a great way for me to connect with others and learn more about how I can take my business to the next level. On January 16th, I spent a very productive day at the Small Business Expo - Miami, attending workshops, visiting various booths to learn what other businesses are doing in my industry and then ended the day with a very inspirational speaker, Bill Walsh, Venture Capitalist & Business Coach. As I listened intently to what he had to say about how to build a successful business I found these key messages really stuck with me, they were simple effective "sound bites or lessons" that can truly be applied to all aspects of your life. Here are my post it notes version of what I learned and took away to apply to my business moving forward. I hope you find these helpful and enjoy reading them. If you have any tips please share them below. Please feel free to contact me at farzanahmo@gmail.com with any questions or comments. Is posting to your social media accounts causing you stress? For some business owners, who already have too much on their plate to do, it can become a burden versus a fun and interactive experience with their fans and customers. For me I’ve always found that having a strategy for anything you do is a helpful way to get started, just be sure you are open to adjusting your tactics to adapt to the market, your customer needs and your business. Through my readings and working with many clients I’ve found these 5 posting options are great way to tackle any posting trauma you are facing and to simply help you get going. 1. The How-To Post – teach your fans and followers how to do something as it relates to your business or it could be something that everyone is interested in, like tips on saving money over the holidays. 2. The List-Based Post – these are great to help organize your thoughts and get ideas down. You can create a list based on anything however make it relevant to your community; for example 5 ways to get rid of a stain – if you are a cleaning company. 3. The Curated Collection Post - if you are constantly reading various articles related to your industry, why not create a collection of the ones you found helpful and post why they were. This can be a short statement such as, learn from the pros how to blog for your business with links to 3 blogging articles. 4. The Inspiration Post – everyone loves a good quote to put a smile on their face, or to give them the motivation they need to get moving that day. Be sure to share these on your page and include pictures where possible. 5. The Shout-out Post – if you admire someone in your industry or simply want to thank a customer, business associate for their help, please make sure you do. The goodwill it provides goes a long way and chances are that person or business will do the same for you. I hope you found these to helpful and enjoyed reading them. If you have any tips please share them below. Source: partially sourced via Hubspot. All tip explanations are based on my marketing experience. Please feel free to contact me at farzanahmo@gmail.com with any questions or comments. Picking a name for your small business can be like trying to name your baby, after all, your business is like your baby and you want to make sure your best self is reflected in all aspects of it and a good strong name says a lot. For some, the business naming process is a daunting task especially if you do not have the budget to hire a fancy naming company. I had the pleasure of doing this earlier this year and I honestly could not come up with a name that I felt strongly about so I went with a temporary solution that is as obvious as white on rice about what I do; Small biz Marketing Consultant. The reason for my over simplified name was frankly to get my business going and to be obvious about what I do. It is my temporary solution until I find the right combination of words that truly describes me, my services and benefits. Now, as I continue research naming my business, reading and learning many ways one can come up with a winning idea, I noticed the following strategies, tips and advice were consistent amongst many business owners. I’d like to share these with you, and would love to learn how you came up with your business name, so please feel free to comment. 5 strategies to use when creating your business name: 1. Conduct a domain name search for potential business names you are thinking about to ensure it is available and what versions of it you can use if the one you like is not available. www.godaddy.com is a great resource for this. 2. Use words from a different language that is easy to pronounce but has a unique brand building quality, chances are the domain name is also be available. However, you will have to put in extra effort in educating and marketing the business name given its’ uniqueness. 3. Conduct a keyword search that includes words that potential consumers would use to find your business and find a clever way to include those words in your name. 4. Include words that describe exactly what you do in your business name. For example; XYZ Graphic Design Company. 5. Create a location base name. This is great if you specialize in servicing a certain area and consumers generally searching for your service by location. Finally, keep in mind that naming your business can also be a huge hindrance from getting started, it is very important to have a solid name, but do not let it stop you from starting your business and making money. There is always the opportunity to refine and adjust your name as you and your business evolve, so pick a useful name and get started today. Tell me how you picked your business name in the comment section, along with any tips and advise. Summer is here and it’s time to enjoy a little down time with family and friends and for some of us, it’s time to take a little break from our business. As for me my summer holiday so far was a visit home to see family & friends in Toronto, where I enjoyed lots of delicious meals and I also got a chance to play tourist with a visit to see the spectacular Niagara Falls. I have to admit, it would be great to take a complete break from business, but that’s not realistic as we need to earn a living, right. For me, I’ve found the summer season is a great time to “get fit for business” by taking steps to improve my marketing knowledge. Also, with the slower summer months for some of us, it gives us a chance to really focus. Now, is there a course, a project or an area you have always to wanted improve upon? This is the time to get it done! One area I always get a lot of questions about is Facebook Marketing Strategies, so I took it upon myself to improve my knowledge and now I want to share it with you for FREE so that you can get your Facebook Fit for business! My very good friend and well reputed Facebook expert Jo Barnes has created this amazing e-book showing you how you can master Facebook, network like a pro and grow your likes, comments, shares & opt-ins in less than an hour a day. Click here to download it now. Hope you find this guide helpful. “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin There is something empowering about learning and being able to share that experience, growing from it, and then being able to contribute what you’ve learned to helping others. In short, we all want to experience, grow and at the end of the day make a contribution, don’t you think? For me, I love the process of leaning and then actively putting it into practice and that is exactly what I did last week and plan on doing so, often. I took action, by attending workshops, engaged in collaborative meetings to share experiences and in turn I am helping to contribute by sharing this experience and what I’ve learnt with you. It all started with an amazing interactive workshop by the Daymond John Academy for Entrepreneurs (Daymond John from #Shark Tank), in this free 2 hour workshop, I learned the essentials of what it means to develop and take your business to the next level and this cannot happen if you are not willing to grow and improve yourself. My biggest take away is get help in areas you are not an expert in. The week later followed up with a morning session filled with local industry guest speakers and discussions hosted by Score, a great local Small Business organization right in Miami. This organization’s sole purpose is to help you succeed in your small business and the great thing about them, is that most of the programs and workshops are free. Please visit them at www.score.org to learn more. Be sure to research organizations like these in your city, there are plenty ready to help. Lastly, my week rounded up with a wonderful meeting on a possible partnership to create and develop new concepts and ideas that will drive my passion and will also contribute back to our small business economy, stay tuned for more. With that said, this week is Small Business Week, I hope you take advantage of local events and offers to help improve your business and develop a winning strategy. Now, part of improving, “ME INC.” is by joining associations that will help me excel in developing my marketing skills on and offline. I would like to take this opportunity to share a piece of information my social media expert influencer has provided me with. It is a wonderful 93 page Facebook guide to help small businesses like you. I am already a part of her paid network, www.jobarnesonline.com so I would like to share this free guide with you. I have no problem talking about other people, brands and companies that have a great product or service to offer but when it comes to talking about me and the services I have to offer, well I am modest about it and I feel my work speaks for itself. I am certainly not shy, however in my new role as entrepreneur it is a learning experience to continuously be promoting myself and what I have to offer. You see, I have always worked on creating and promoting other brands, marketing their benefits and giving consumers reasons to buy and was always able to find the right story to tell to get the target consumer interested in learning more even if it was a mediocre brand. However, now that I have taken the leap to starting a mostly online business with consulting services, I find it a bit self-serving to show off, maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but I am learning fast. As a small business marketing service provider, your customer wants to get to know you, understand you before they feel comfortable doing business with you, so it’s not really showing off, it’s more about showing up and letting them in. One way I thought would be best to let my current and potential customers in is by creating a slide share, after all words do get a bit tedious to read, why not create your profile in pictures with words and let that do the talking for you. For any small business wanting to showcase your product or service, this is an effective and fun way to let your customers learn more, and it gives them a story to unfold. Regardless of the type of business you are in, you can always make a slide share interesting with good pictures and a simple message. Click here for my slide share, and I encourage you to do one as well. Let me know how it goes. Let's get connected, email me with questions or comments. No, I am not talking about VP or VIP status; I am talking about something far more important your email subject or blog title. So you've created a piece of writing with great information you want to make sure people read once it lands in their inbox. Now, coming up with a captivating title or subject is not the easiest task for any marketer or business owner responsible for putting out content for their product or service. When creating a subject title for your masterpiece, you need to think about what would make someone ignore everything they are doing to open and read your fabulous email. Well there are ways to get this done, and as always, with good marketing, testing different versions of what you are doing helps for better results. As a small business marketer, I too need a little help and inspiration, so I decided to thoroughly research the topic and have compiled these simple tips to help you in one area that is key to getting your email/blog read; THAT IS THE TITLE! 5 tips for title creation: 1. Your subject title should clearly state what your article is about and what information the reader is about to find out. This maybe obvious but sometimes you may get so caught up in the body of your email, article or newsletter that you forget to take the time and effort necessary to create a good title. 2. Be clear as to who the information is meant for in the title, for example if it’s for a business owner that sells flip flops then you may want to reference that. For example; how to increase your summer sales with flip flops. 3. Deliver on your promise; it’s great to have a super catchy title and make everyone want to know more about what you have to say, but better make sure you deliver on what you promised in the title. 4. The length of your title should be longer rather than shorter. Evidence suggests that longer titles produce more views versus shorter titles. 5. Do not make your title a sales pitch, it is the quickest way to get deleted. It should be informative, provide helpful information and be inviting. You can always incorporate your “sell” into the end of the article once you’ve got the reader hooked. I hope found these helpful, let's get connected, email me with questions or comments. farzanah@smallbizmarketingconsultant.com DO YOU STRUGGLE WITH CREATING CONTENT ?
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Hi my name is Farzanah. I am a marketing pro with 10 + years of experience in marketing management and a busy mom dedicated to helping small business owners improve their marketing with copy writing that transforms their online visitors into taking action. Trending Posts
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