Business

All year round, consumers purchase goods and pay for services to live comfortably – and within their budget. This means businesses must come up with unique ways to promote their brand, products and services to meet customers’ needs.

With the right social media advertising techniques, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools, and relevant digital content, any small business can stand its own – even in the midst of major competitors. If you run a small growing business, here are 5 proven marketing strategies and ideas to help your brand succeed.

Discounts and free giveaways

As a small business, you might fear giving out your products for free or half price. But this has proven to be effective for most brands you can think of. It must not be done weekly or monthly, to avoid customer expectation. Instead, it could be on Christmas day, Valentine’s Day, a day commemorating the launch of your business or a product. You can ask your consumers to drop comments on your page or tweet you what these days mean to them. Then reward the best replies. This gives them a notion that you respect their feelings and that way, they’re likely to recommend your brand to other consumers; thereby driving traffic to your site and generating leads.

Partner with a big non-competing brand

As a small business, it’s good to collaborate with larger businesses that have a big customer base – so long as they aren’t competing in the same niche. For example, if you run a business that produces and sells customised vehicle rims, you can partner with a car manufacturing brand. This way, when people purchase cars from the bigger brand, they can get to see the quality of your product. This will help promote your brand, establishing reliability.

Be active on social media

The importance of social media to business brands these days can’t be ignored. With over 2 billion active social media accounts worldwide, your customers will also expect you to be active – especially to make purchases or answer queries. When they’re certain of how reliable you are (online), these loyal customers will repost and share your content for other people to access and benefit from. This leads to increased sales, profit and online presence.

Organise or sponsor small online events

Organising an event online – especially via your social media accounts – makes interaction between you and your customers better. It could be a beauty pageant, a quiz, a “first to like” competition or anything creative and engaging. Prospective clients are also likely to take part, in that way helping to boost your consumer base.

Do something nice for loyal customers

Make your loyal customers feel special once in a while. You can take them out to lunch, send them gifts, give them exclusive discounts during purchases or even make personalised products for them. This helps build a long lasting relationship with them and they will indirectly promote your brand via word of mouth, recommendations and online content sharing.

Recruiting can be an expensive process, and not just because of the actual cash costs of advertising for a new position and locating the right candidate. It can also eat up time your staff needs to spend on projects that make you money, and the loss of productivity while a position is unfilled also costs you money. That’s why companies seek to reduce turnovers. Luckily, there is one well-known way you can do that for your firm, and that is by hiring people who are a good fit for your corporate culture from the beginning. That sounds simpler than it is, but Chicago finance recruiting firms can streamline the process and help you make sure your new hires are a good fit.

How to Use Top Staffing Agencies to Reduce Turnover

If you have positions that need to be filled on a temporary or short-term basis, you can always work with a staffing company to find you the talent you need. They pre-screen for positions, ensuring everyone who hits the floor is qualified, and they work with your human resources to find candidates that fit your company’s culture. You can use them for temporary work, to find full-time candidates, or even to help your company build a system of contractor labor and recruitment that lets you really test someone’s performance before investing in them as a full-time employee.

Benefits From Reduced Turnover

• More unified corporate culture and longer lasting working relationships
• Employees with thorough knowledge of their position and experience in it
• Reduced costs affiliated with recruitment
• Increased productivity
• Increased rapport between employees and management

The top staffing agencies in Chicago work with you to make sure you are getting top talent when you recruit, no matter what position you are looking to fill. Check out Beacon Resources for an example of one top firm that has a track record of placing the best talent in the area with the biggest companies recruiting.

Are you getting all you could out of your employees? When you look around your workplace do you see happy, enthusiastic people working hard and enjoying what they do, or do you see tired, stressed people watching the clock? Employee morale matters, and not just because it’s a nice thing to strive for. It makes your own business experience more pleasurable and it can have a pronounced effect on the bottom line – even if workers who are smiling, chatting from time to time and looking relaxed might not seem to be doing as much, they’re significantly more productive. They need less time off, they get through more work, and the work they do is of a higher quality. What can you do to help bring all this about?

Be ready to listen – and learn!

If you ask stressed employees what really frustrates them about their work, the most common answer you’ll receive is that they don’t feel they’re appreciated. Showing employees that you appreciate their efforts isn’t so much about praising them as it is about listening to them – and that has additional benefits because they often have good ideas. For instance, processes that you might think work just fine when you look down on them from above may have obvious flaws to those on the ground, so that fixing them makes the workplace more efficient and your employees feel that their input is valued.

Be flexible

Another thing that workers often flag up as a problem is working long hours, a culture that leaves them with little time to do the other things that matter to them in life. Still more of an issue, however, is the inflexibility of many employers when it comes to working arrangements. Having more control over which days they work and what time they come in makes a big difference to many people; for instance, being able to start at ten instead of nine means single parents can take their kids to school first. Some businesses even set up virtual offices so that staff can more easily work from home, and allowing some work to be home-based can actually lead to increased productivity as employees adjust their schedules to fit in work when they feel most alert.

Work and play together

Team building is vital to creating a happy, healthy office culture. That doesn’t mean smothering each other with lots of social events outside office hours, and it doesn’t mean trying to make ‘fun’ compulsory (which is often counterproductive), but it does mean that creating opportunities to do things as a group is beneficial. Picking lucky numbers together in a lottery syndicate means that you can share the excitement when the lottery numbers come in and share out any winnings. Few things create such an effective team bond as when everybody is celebrating the same thing at the same time.

Provide treats

Can’t afford to raise your employees’ pay? Then there are other ways to make them feel a little bit spoiled at work. Simple things like ordering pizza for everyone on a Friday afternoon can create a happy atmosphere and make workers feel they have been lucky in their choice of employer. Rewards make a good incentive for hard work but can be dispiriting to those employees who never quite make the grade despite their efforts, but good things that everybody gets to share brings the team together rather than creating favorites. Having good coffee or fruit juice available all day also boosts performance by raising energy levels.

Provide opportunity

In the long-term, what many employees really value about their jobs is the opportunities they get to develop their skills and improve their resumes. This could come from workplace training, from the learning opportunities provided by secondments, or simply from being assigned to a variety of tasks in the workplace. Some employers choose to sponsor their workers to study part time at college, enabling them to gain new skills which are then brought back into the workplace. Some worry that improved skills will lead to workers looking for opportunities elsewhere, but in fact studies show that they tend to increase employee loyalty.

With all these techniques at your disposal, there’s no reason why you should feel helpless about low morale in your workplace. Even a small investment of time and effort can give your employees a big boost and help re-energize your organization. You’ll know if you’re getting it right because you’ll find that it makes you feel happier too.

Telephone answering can be the difference between success and failure, and for some businesses, the inability to answer calls in time is the cause of lost business opportunities. Just how much business a company might lose when failing to answer calls is never clear, but if there is a risk of losing a potential customer, you really do need to cover this one, and the best way to do that is by calling in the experts.

Call Answering Service 

These are highly qualified professional people who are located at a call centre, and each would typically look after a small number of customers, and being fully briefed on each one’s business, they answer calls in a prompt and professional manner. If you look into Reception HQ answering service pricing, you will see just how affordable it is to have this service, and with a wide range of other services, your business will never again suffer due a missed call.

Call Forwarding

You might have an office phone number, and as you are often out and about, you would rightly be concerned that calls are not being answered, but with call forwarding, an incoming call will be automatically forwarded to the client’s preferred number, which could be either a land or mobile number. If you would like some further reading on the benefits of call forwarding to a business, there are excellent articles on various business sites that you can refer to.

Overflow Call Handling

Some companies run special promotions, and coupled with seasonal surges, there are very busy times when you could use some help manning the phones, and with your call handling provider at hand, any overflow above your normal quota of incoming calls can be automatically handled by a virtual receptionist. This is a very cost effective way to do things, as you only pay for the service when you need it, and with a high degree of flexibility, the call answering provider offers the ideal way to ensure smooth communication in your company.

Message Taking

This is a vital part of any organisation or even when starting out as an entrepreneur, and by using a professional provider, you can be sure that all relevant people are informed when taking messages. You might, for instance, have a fleet of mobile teams that service your clients at all hours of day and night, and when a customer calls for support, you want to be certain they get it.

It makes perfect sense to ensure that all incoming business calls are handled in a professional manner, and with a flexible call answering service at your disposal, you really can’t go wrong. If you would like to sample this service, the supplier would be happy to give you an unconditional free trial, so you yourself can experience the many benefits the service can offer. Once you have experienced the benefits for a week or so, you can decide on a suitable package that covers your requirements, and with a level of flexibility, this can easily be altered.

In this day and age, starting a business does not just mean opening up a brick and mortar shop and putting up posters. It will also include these important marketing efforts:

• Creating website – which includes making sure you can secure your preferred domain name through a domain lookup to strengthen your online brand, web designing, and search engine optimisation
• Creating content – which includes blog articles that people can share their feed, videos, and website copy
• Creating social media pages – which includes opening accounts on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

This article will focus on social media and how you can use it to increase sales or traffic. The problem is some social media managers just cannot get it right. They think incorporating memes in all of their posts will get them the right traction. But if you cannot use trends well, that is just pandering to your audience which feels like you are trying too hard. And then there are who think the way they use their personal account is the same as posting on a business account.

There are factors that need to be considered when pushing efforts on social media, and that is what we are going to explore here.

Creating a social media marketing plan

A social media marketing plan is best created while you are auditing your pages. Look at your analytics and see what kind of posts are getting significant traction and which ones lead to conversion. See if the number of engagement you are getting is proportional to the amount of conversion. Then set objectives and goals that you want to achieve in a specific time frame. So for instance, if engagement vs. conversion is disproportionate, come up with strategies that will allow you to increase both.

Additionally, you may be spread too thin if you are managing too many social media pages and not enough audience for all of it. See which ones are popular to your audience and is giving you more value-added results, then just focus your attention there.

Using the proper voice and tone

For this, you need to consider two things:

• Characteristics of the target audience
• Characteristics of the social media pages

What do these mean? People will behave differently depending on the social media channel that they are using. Yes, there will be common traits across all channels, but the words that they use will not be the same on Facebook and on LinkedIn.

So once you have a shortlist of social media pages to retain, observe your users. What kind of language are they using? What kind of posts do they share and engage with more? Usually, channels like Facebook and Twitter would be more open to humour. Which means other than industry related articles, you can put funny posts on your social media calendar. On the other hand, for a channel like LinkedIn, you might need to stick with industry related news, and maybe a sprinkling motivational quotes every now and then.

Paying for sponsored ads

There is a misconception that sponsored ads are expensive. Well, this is only slightly true. The amount you will pay depends on how long you want the ad to run and how many people you want to reach. The most effective strategy for this is to determine the objective of the sponsored ad.

For instance, having a promotion on your page would mean running a sponsored ad until the end of the validity. So if you are offering a 50% discount on room accommodation until the end of the month, you should run the promo until the end of the month. If the purpose of the post is just to get more people to like your page, you can run the ad for at least 3 days to a week.

The great thing about Facebook ads is you have full control over the budget and for how long an ad will run. Don’t worry about spending more than what you can afford because it will stop on the date that you want the sponsored ad to end.

So, when starting up a business remember to consider and include these important marketing efforts.

Whether you own a business in Sydney, Tokyo, London, New York, or Hong Kong, rent is likely to be your biggest expense. In central districts especially, rates rise at a relentless pace, and it isn’t unusual for smaller companies to be priced out of the market.

It is a big problem in Hong Kong, a region that is home to the most expensive office spaces in the world. You have to be cash rich to become established here. Or, you must be clever. Over the last five years, younger businesses have developed a novel solution to this old dilemma.

It is called the virtual office, and it makes corporate resources available, without the need to pay for a full-time lease. Visit www.servcorp.com.hk/en-virtual-offices/ to learn more.

Virtually No Overheads

The special thing about virtual offices is the lack of physical space. This leasing model is not designed for allocating privately rented environments. Instead, the central facility operates a kind of ‘cloud’ office system that tenants pay to access.

Using a combination of online and telephone contact, you can ‘check in’ to your virtual office at any time, from any location. You can get updates on phone calls, voicemails, letters, memos, and more. It’s just like running a regular office; only you don’t spend the day there.

Maximum Mobility 

So, by eliminating the burden of physical space, you also get to rid your business of heating, lighting, cleaning, and a host of other expenses. You don’t need to care for employees because anybody you work with will be in their own location.

There are no rent payments. There is nothing to pay for furniture or décor. Yet, far from having nothing, virtual businesses enjoy all the freedom in the world. With no physical ties, you can use the remote office to take your brand around the globe if desired.

Greater Productivity

Again, far from being a limiting factor, the lack of physical space can end up eliciting better performance from your team. One of the biggest problems with traditional leases is the focus on rigid schedules. They are mostly concerned with whether or not employees are present.

Yet, this doesn’t answer the question of whether they are spending their time wisely. Simply being in the office doesn’t guarantee productivity. When you go virtual, the only proof of performance is the literal work. Therefore, it’s easy to see how much effort is being invested.

All Gains, No Downsides

There is no need to worry about the impact of having no address either. In fact, virtual vendors encourage tenants to direct mail and calls to the facility, as if it were their own address. This is a perfectly legal practice. It is entirely up to you how much you want to tell your clients.

It is easy to benefit from all kinds of reputation boost just by associating yourself with a top spot. While everybody else is paying a high price for theirs, you can be enjoying the benefits and not pay any rent. Having a formal, professional address is also handy for SEO purposes.

Why Virtual Office Solutions Are Worth Your Time

Every year, more businesses realise the advantages of going virtual. As rent rates continue to rise in central Hong Kong, it is often the only way for smaller companies to compete. With the support of these vendors, you get to access the same opportunities for a much smaller fee and it will help you save money.

Therefore, the lack of a private, long-term lease does not have to be a negative outcome. In fact, if you take advantage of the many chances to grow and network, it will open up brand new prospects.