Templates Are More Than Just For Online Businesses

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When you think of business templates, you probably thought of templates that would be used by online businesses, accounting practices, even engineering firms. But, if you have a small, local business you probably said to yourself, “Templates can’t possibly help me.” You should reconsider this position.

Templates can be exceptionally valuable for all types of business. For example, a carpet cleaning company in Mobile, AL used our templates to improve how their technicians clean carpets. What do I mean by that?

They were having issues with customers complaining because the technicians weren’t being thorough enough with the cleaning. Sometimes they would skip steps, or skip areas that should have been cleaned. The result was a less than perfect finished product. The carpet cleaning company came to us ready to fire the offending technicians and really at a loss for how to manage the problem.

Our solution was simple. We created a template for their technicians to use. It was a step by step guide that brought them through every stage of the cleaning project. It included everything from first greeting the customer to walking through the job with the customer to ensure the scope was properly understood, all the way to a step-by-step guide to doing the work to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten.

So before you dismiss the ability of templates to help your business improve how it runs, consider how helpful even something as simple a step by step guide for interacting with customers, or a training package for tasks that are done repeatedly in your business. I am confident that our templates can help your business, just like it helped the carpet cleaners in Mobile.

Consider creating your own templates by watching your best employees do the work. Take notes of what they’re doing, and what you would like them to do. Then create your own templates by writing everything down and using it so your employees are all doing the task the same as your best employees.

Reputation Management 101

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Your reputation is worth a lot and you are running a business. Unpleasant customers or a few mistakes can seriously hurt your reputation online and in the local community. Use these helpful reputation management tips and tricks in this article to help you avoid the issues that may threaten your reputation.

Honesty and transparency are key to earn the trust of your customers. Never try to cover up or remove posts that are negative on your website. When you do this, they can make customers feel that you are ignoring their concerns with your company or that you simply do not care about your customers. When you choose to be upfront about problems within your company, customers will tend to trust you more.

Claiming your name is essential to building your company’s reputation. Your company’s name or the name of your product is all part of your brand recognition. You will want to check online to ensure that your companies or products name is not already being used by someone else. If it is, a bad review against that company or products will reflect on you when potential customers search you out online.

On your social media sites and on your website, be sure to post your moderation guidelines. This way, your site visitors will know what they should and should not post on your site. Do not make the guidelines so harsh that they cannot leave criticism, though. You want to know how your customers feel about your business and your products, but you want them to know that they must leave comments that are respectful and honest. If someone does post a comment that falls outside of your guidelines, remove their post and then give the reason for the post being removed.

 

Your reputation is very important to the future success of your business. If you can repair any issues as soon as they happen, it will help to keep your reputation, online and in the community, in good standing. Use the tricks and tips here to help you keep a good reputation.

Social Media Marketing Campaign Ideas

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When you first start a social media campaign, there are many things you will have to juggle. Social media marketing is an you are marketing method used to market your products or your business. Many people find it difficult to know exactly where to start with their social media marketing. But the tips in this article to use to better understand how to more effectively market through social media.

If you’re having a special promotion or a sale, social media should be used to promote it. You can post it on any social networking sites such as twitter or Facebook to have it viewed by thousands of people. It is a simple and quick way to let people know about what’s going on with your business.

Find bloggers with active blogs about your niche and leave comments on their posts. In those comments, you will usually be able to leave a link that can lead readers to your own site. Though commenting on blogs that have a large following could generate more traffic to your site, many times readers on the smaller blogs will add up quickly.

Before you start a social media marketing campaign, map out your goals and objectives. These goals and objectives need to be made available for everyone within the company so that your entire organization can be on the same page. If everyone within your company is working towards the same goals, all of the activities within the company will be focused on those goals, helping the social media marketing campaign to be more productive.

Social media marketing is a wonderful way promote your business and increase the visibility of your company. The more visible your business is, and the more accessible it is through the different social networks, the more that it will grow. Continue to research social media marketing to help your business to grow, and use the advice here get you started on the right foot.

 

Lead Generation Tactics for Your Business

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Are you wanting more customers for your business? If so, you need to learn about lead generation. In this article, we will discuss ways to attract new customers through lead generation.

If you want to try attracting customers through a new way, test a small market sample first. Marketing online can be inexpensive, but you don’t want to lose time by putting resources into something that isn’t going to work for you. When you test it on a sample group first and it generates some leads, then move forward with it. If it doesn’t, put it aside and move on.

Always be mindful of your customers privacy and their wishes. When you get a lead, pay attention if those customers have opted to not receive offers from you. When you send things to parties who are uninterested, you disrespect their privacy and waste your time.

 

Keep a record of how many leads you get from your lead generation. How long is it taking you to bring in those leads? Are they quality leads or weak? Now factor in the amount of time you spend on your lead generation. This will help you to determine which lead generation tactics work best for your investment.

Knocking on doors is always an option with lead generation. This can even work when your business does B2B marketing. Visit a local business and talk with them about the items they currently use that are similar to what you sell, then let them know why your company is a better option for them. Leave behind some of your materials then go to the next business.

Never be afraid to pick up the phone and call someone. You may be surprised how many sells you get that way. There is always someone that wants to buy what you are selling.

Hopefully, this article has given you the good information you need to help you with lead generation. Remember that finding good leads is important to finding customers for the long-term, and that bad leads simply are a waste of time. Always find the ways to increase your good leads and watch your business take off.

 

 

SEO for Your Business

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There is nothing simple when it comes to search engine optimization. To get your website ranked high in the search engines, there is no one method or golden rule to follow. The best way to make SEO work for you is to use several methods at once and figure out which ones will give your business the best results. This article will give you a few ideas to get your SEO working for you.

When you set up SEO on your website, pay attention to the keyword density. Your major keywords need to be around three to seven percent of your total text amount. When you start going higher than ten percent, the search engine will look at it suspiciously and realize you are stuffing keywords to boost the rank of your page.

When you go to search for something on the internet, always use quotations for direct phrases. This will better filter your results by ensuring the exact phrase you want is in every result in your search. This can help to make your search process more streamlined and get you what you are looking for faster.

Always add external links into your website. Your site’s search engine ranking can be positively affected by the number of outbound links on it. Be sure the links are themselves search engine optimized and relevant to your page first, though. The best links to add are those that are related to your website but not your direct competition. You certainly do not want to lose your future customers just from trying to boost your own search engine rankings.

You need to ensure that your site is registered with all the major search engines so people can find you when they search. When your site is registered, the search engines spiders will crawl on your site and increase your rankings. To make sure you are registered, go through the webmaster tools of the search engines. It costs you nothing but a little time.

Remember, when it comes to SEO, there is no one technique that you should use to get your site ranked. The more techniques you use, the better your chances of being ranked. The search engines algorithms are constantly changing, making the methods of ranking obsolete before you can even learn them.  To get your website to the forefront, use every method in your toolbox to get your SEO running well.

 

Starting Your Business at Home

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Most people would love to work from home. This article is filled with lots of information to help you get started with your home based business.

Hiring a certified accountant is a great way to save money with your home business. Though it seems like an unnecessary expense in the beginning, it can save you from more expenses in the long run if your business is ever audited.  The tax laws tend to change yearly, so having an accountant can help to relieve the stress of keeping up with the changes and let you focus on running your business.

When you work from home, you can write off part of the work space in your home, such as a dedicated home office, as a business expense. The write off can include a portion of your rent or mortgage, your utilities, and insurance. To figure out how much you can deduct, calculate your home’s square footage compared to how much square footage is devoted to your business, then divide the bills accordingly. Know that the IRS will look at this expense closely, though.

As with any business, you will need a budget. It is impossible to run a business effectively without creating a budget. Spend a lot of time and purpose when planning your business budget. It should include all of your expenses itemized. Be very thorough and include all expenses so you have an accurate accounting.

Always take pride in what you do. Even though your business is home based, no one should be allowed to talk down about your business, especially your competition. Your business can generally offer prices that are lower since you have a lot less overhead expenses, and your business is more flexible. Always use a professional attitude when conducting business and that will be how other people will see you.

Use the tips in this article to maximize your productivity in your home business. By using the tips, you can improve your current home business or create a brand new one. Then you can reach your dreams of being a successful home business owner.