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September 2nd, 2010
Marketing Pilgrim reports on a survey by ChannelAdvisor.
MP concluded the following based on the study results:
- Retailer value is more important than brand recognition
- Price is the leading factor that determines whether consumers will purchase from you or your competition online
- Free shipping is also highly influential in determining buying decisions
- Third on the list is trusted seller status, but this only makes sense on sites like Amazon and eBay
- Fourth – discount coupons; I consider this one related to price
In other words, if it comes down to a premium brand versus small Mom and Pop and you can offer the same or similar product for less while providing greater value, guess who wins? Yep, you do. Small business rules!
Of course, Marketing Pilgrim also points out that 83% of online consumers are influenced by product reviews.
So how do we put this all together? What’s the take away? If you can drop your price lower to beat the competition and still profit, offer free shipping and get positively reviewed on well trafficked websites while building your trust as an online retailer, you’ll sell a lot of product.
Tags: online retail, pricing, product reviews
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 4 Comments »
September 1st, 2010
For the second time since its introduction, the Kindle will sell in an off line retail environment. The company has announced that the Kindle will be sold at Staples.
By selling its flagship product in real stores, Amazon is expanding its reach. This is a smart move. It takes Amazon into an environment where small business owners and retail customers are doing business. If those customers are not already buying books from Amazon online then they will be once they purchase a Kindle. I think Amazon is looking long term here.
If you consider the price of Kindle books and how many of those that Amazon can expect to sell over the life of a single Kindle then the company stands to make more long-term profits from the sell of its books if it makes the Kindle more available and in more places. That’s why the company started selling Kindle in Target last June and now has gone into Staples. It wouldn’t surprise me to see more retail locations in the works.
In light of this real world move by Amazon, will the Kindle become a staple of small business productivity? Will small business owners buy their business books from Amazon to read on their Kindle? Will small business owners use their Kindle for connecting to the Internet, and do all the other wonderful things the Kindle will allow them to do?
I don’t know what the future has in store for Kindle and business applications, but I do know that making the Kindle available to small business owners at Staples is a smart move.
Tags: e-books, Kindle, retail
Posted in Tools for Small Business | 2 Comments »
August 31st, 2010
We’ve recently been looking into Cloud Based Accounting for our business, and I thought I would share some of what I’ve learned so far as I’ve started to research which among the many choices out there we should consider.
This is a very brief overview of cloud accounting, also known as online accounting, or in some circumstances SaaS (software as a service) accounting software.
What is cloud software?
Cloud accounting software at its most basic level is on demand accounting software, so (as long as you have the right internet browser) and an internet connection you can access the software and your company’s financial data from anywhere in the world through a number of devices. Your data is held either on several servers hosted by the software provider in house, or on a third party’s server – for example, Amazon. This is a very basic description, but the main things you should be concerned with are the security of the servers and what happens if something goes wrong (how quickly will things be back up and running?).
Benefits
Access it anywhere:
So the above idea of not being tied to one computer is one of the clear benefits of using cloud accounting software over desktop based accounting software. Not being tied to one location or PC means that you and your work colleagues can access your financial data anywhere in the world (internet connection required!). In the case of a small sized business, if it has an accountant that completes the end of year financial returns then they no longer have to come and visit the company on site; saving the business money in accountant’s fees.
Subscription based:
Another small or medium sized business benefit here, the fact that cloud accounting tends to be subscription based means that it can scale with your company. A small company with few transactions may even find a free package, then (hopefully) as the company grows this can be upgraded through a few clicks of a button. The fact that there is no installing of software or on site data storage also means that you don’t have a horrendous up front bill to pay. Very nice.
Upgrades on the go:
Speaking with accountants you find that one of the really annoying things about old school (desktop) accounting software is the fact that if a client did not have the same software as you then you would have to explain how they can export the software and then send it to you. This time consuming process has been banished as cloud accounting software (depending on the provider) can be upgraded on the fly. The twofold benefit of constant upgrades being that new features will constantly keep coming available and you the customer have the ability to help shape the software’s development. There should be no additional cost for this process. The competitive nature of the cloud accounting market means that software providers need to keep on their toes, if a competitor has a feature you want (like a PayPal import) then leave and go to them.
There are other benefits and drawbacks to cloud accounting software, but this gives you an idea of a general place to start!
Providers:
When choosing cloud accounting software, always make sure the provider allows you at least a 30 day trial. During this period you can then try out several software systems and find which is the most intuitive for you to use or has the features that you need.
The market place is growing rapidly with new providers springing up every day. Below are some of them that are worth a try:
- Xero New Zealand based $18 – $37
- Quickbooks Online $10 – $35
- Clear Books UK Based between $7 – $23
Tags: accounting, cloud computing, small business
Posted in Small Business Finance | 6 Comments »
August 30th, 2010
I’ve got to hand it to Bill Slawski. He writes about search engine patents and the gems he uncovers are fabulous. This morning he wrote about a Google patent that establishes an algorithm for helping searchers find blogs about a particular topic.
Note that this is different than Google’s ordinary search algorithm, which helps users find individual blog posts about a particular topic.
If you are a searcher, for instance, looking for blogs specifically about small business marketing then you might go to Google’s blog search – not the home page search – and type in “small business marketing”. Then you’ll hit the button labeled “Search Blogs”. You’ll get a list of blogs that regularly write about small business marketing as opposed to random blogs that sometimes write posts about small business marketing. You’ll find the blogs, not individual blog posts.
This has huge potential for marketers. If you want to develop an audience for your particular niche then it helps to know how the search engines rank blogs that target niches. By learning the criteria search engines look for to determine blog rankings you stand a better chance of having your blog rank highly in the search engine’s blog search feature.
Thanks, Bill. That was a really useful post.
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | 3 Comments »
August 29th, 2010
After all has been said and done about link building campaigns and the importance of driving inbound links to your company’s website, many small business owners and marketers are still confused by link building. But is it really as hard as they’re making it out to be?
To be sure, there are a lot of things to think about when building links.
- Should I request reciprocal links?
- What makes a link relevant?
- Quantity vs. quality
- What exactly is a quality link anyway?
- Do directory submissions really help?
- Is article marketing still effective?
- Does blogging build good links?
- Link age
- Domain age
- Anchor text
- Title attribute
- Surrounding text
- Are image links effective?
- Forum links vs. blog comments
- Social media profile links
- Is social bookmarking really link building?
- Do press releases build quality links?
I could go on and on. There are hundreds more questions and concerns that could be brought up in the discussion of link building and many of them don’t have any real definitive answers. So I can understand how confusing it can be for someone just getting started.
It is sometimes better to think about link building in terms of the negatives – that is, what you should not do versus what you should.
- You don’t want to place your links on pages with thousands of other links.
- You don’t want links on websites associated with warez, malware or other evil creatures of the Web.
- Stay away from iframe links and nefarious redirects.
- Don’t pay people to link to you.
- Don’t do too much link building too fast (although, as a caveat, it’s fairly difficult for a small business to break this rule as “too much too fast” often means thousands of links in a short time frame such as days or weeks).
- Don’t engage in questionable link building tactics.
If you have any questions or concerns about proper link building techniques, read the search engine guidelines – particularly Google and Bing. If they say it’s OK then it’s OK; if they say it’s not then it isn’t.
Link building isn’t hard, but it isn’t exactly easy either. It is important. If you feel like a fish out of water when you try it then you might want to find someone you trust to help you with building solid links with benefits that last a long time.
Tags: link building, online marketing, small business
Posted in link building | 8 Comments »
August 28th, 2010
Cynthia Boris makes a good point. If you can’t measure the effectiveness of your social media then why are you using it?
This is the dilemma of the modern marketer. Social media has proven to be an effective marketing channel for a lot of marketers. But so has television. That doesn’t mean the medium is a proven marketing channel for everyone who uses it. Any marketing channel requires a knowledge of its use that consists of strategies and tactics that have worked for others and that might work for your situation. Without a solid grounding in marketing principles and your market niche, your chances of succeeding in any marketing channel are pretty slim.
Even then, having the ability to measure your results is necessary if you want to gauge your effectiveness. And that’s what social media has lacked for the most part.
Yesterday, we talked about a new addition to ShareThis – social media analytics. And Twitter has had third-party analytics tools available for it for quite some time. Many marketers report they use traditional tools like Google Analytics and Omniture. These are fine. The bottom line is to use something that will give you a visual on how your marketing efforts are panning out.
Remember this maxim: What you don’t measure you can’t change. So measure your results and the next time someone asks you why you are using social media, you’ll have an answer.
Tags: analytics, marketing, Social Media
Posted in Social Media | 6 Comments »
August 27th, 2010
Since social media has become popular there has been a huge problem for marketers – measuring results. How do you measure your results and analyze the effectiveness of your social media campaigns? It’s been a big challenge.
Finally, ShareThis adds analytics for social media marketing.
The analytics are centered around two very important marketing concepts:
The Audience Index is the measure of your audience’s influence compared to that of other websites generally and those within your niche. This metric also allows you to see how influential your audience is or, rather, how you engage with key influencers on your site. It is important to know how well you connect with key influencers because those are the people who will pass on the benefits of your product or service to their audiences and influencers generally have large audiences. That’s why they are called “influencers”. It’s an important part of your audience segment.
Social reach is a metric that deals with how widely your content is distributed and shared. It measures how far your content travels and the resulting return in traffic based on those shares.
Both of these metrics have the potential to help you gauge how effective you are in reaching your target audience and whether or not you are reaching the right influencers based on your niche. As far as social media analytics go, this is a step in the right direction.
Tags: analytics, Social Media
Posted in Tracking & Analytics | 3 Comments »
August 26th, 2010
All over the blogosphere for the last couple of days I’ve seen the same thing over and over again. Bloggers are upset about a Philadelphia decree to start charging bloggers $300 for the privilege of running their online business. Does this mean that there will be fewer blog start ups in Philadelphia?
Of course, cities have been requiring business licenses for a long time. It’s only now that business licenses for online businesses have become news. And for the record, Philadelphia isn’t the only city requiring licenses for online businesses. Boston, L.A. and the District of Columbia do as well.
But it’s unclear whether the Philadelphia business license would apply to small businesses who use a blog to promote their off line business. What is clear is that if your blog runs ads then it qualifies as a business. And that $300, for clarification, is a one-time fee – not an annual tax. Does that make a difference?
I don’t think the license fee will slow down the number of blog start ups. It’s a relatively small fee and even a modestly profitable blog can earn that back within a year. Since the licensing requirement is a lifetime fee, that makes it pretty darn affordable. There is just one thing that you should consider when you start to do business online – just as you would when starting your off line business. Make sure you meet all your legal requirements. Otherwise, you could land in hot water.
Tags: blogging, small business
Posted in Blogging for Small Business | No Comments »
August 25th, 2010
Online marketing is becoming increasingly more important as companies struggle with competition and the costs of doing business. In many cases, marketing your business online is cheaper and easier than doing it off line. But it’s not a make it or break it deal. In other words, if you fail online it doesn’t mean your business will fail.
Glen at Viperchill wrote a great blog post on how to make a living at self-employed Internet marketing. But as a small business owner, can you apply his principles to your business?
You aren’t trying to earn a full-time living from Internet marketing. You’re just trying to market your off line business online and make it profitable. Is that possible? It sure is. Here are a few tips from Glen’s post that you should consider for your own business.
- Write a mission statement. No one else needs to know what it is. However, if you have a business that caters to customers then it might be helpful to state your mission on your website and other marketing collateral. Still, whether you share it or not, a mission statement can keep you focused.
- Identify what you’re good at and drive it home. That is, focus on your strengths and exploit them till you succeed.
- Instead of wasting time on nonessential tasks, identify what the most important tasks are and do those every day.
- If you don’t start you’ll never finish.
- If you are self employed it might be difficult to establish working hours, but you should do it any way. Even if you don’t have specific client work starting out, establish your working hours and make sure you work on something during those hours.
- Don’t go on spending sprees and waste all your profits.
- Don’t let yourself down. Your needs are important too. Don’t let others take you away from what you know is important.
- Don’t put on airs or pretend to be bigger than you are. People do business with people, not nameless, faceless enterprises.
- Remember that anything you do online is marketing. It will have a public consequence.
- If you have a problem with something then, chances are, someone else does too. Fix the problem and capitalize on it.
- This is easy to do online. Become a member of your own market. If you are selling something then network with others who sell something similar or who do business in your niche. In the Internet age, markets are conversations.
- Set launch dates for yourself and stick to them. Meet your own deadlines.
- Set your own rules. You are the boss. If something doesn’t work for you then don’t do it. On the other hand, if something does work for you and no one else is doing it then do it any way. Self employment means you are doing things your way. Even online, you are the boss of your own business.
In this day and age, marketing a small business means marketing both online and off line. Learn to integrate them successfully and you’ll do well no matter what you are doing.
Tags: online marketing, small business
Posted in Small Business Internet Marketing | 1 Comment »
August 24th, 2010
You are likely no stranger to Facebook. Almost everyone uses it these days and the company boasts 150 million users on mobile phones alone. The local Groups feature has been a popular Facebook offering since the beginning of the social service and it allows users to connect with people in their local areas. But Facebook Places takes local social networking a bit further.
Enter real time location-based social networking.
Facebook Places allows you to let your friends know exactly where you are located right now. For instance, you’re sitting in a Starbucks at the corner of Fifth and Main. If someone you know is approaching that intersection and sees you sitting there, she could just pop in and say hi. The courtesy of a heads up would be her choice, of course.
The biggest downside seems to be a loss of privacy, but you can change who sees and who can interact with your Facebook Places settings through the service’s privacy settings.
This puts Facebook on the forefront of location-based networking and close to the leading edge on location-based advertising, which is sure to follow. It’s interesting that other location-based services like Foursquare and Gowalla see Facebook as friendly to their services rather than a competitor.
(Source) Appearing at Facebook’s announcement, some initial partners, including Foursquare and Gowalla, said they thought Facebook would be an enabler—not a competitor—by introducing a lot of new users to the world of sharing their locations.
Foursquare beat Facebook to the location-based networking space by a year and a half. Gowalla arrived on the scene somewhat earlier but doesn’t have as many users as Foursquare.
Of course, these are not the only location-based networking services online. Facebook Places does have its competition, including Google. Google’s service is called Latitude, which allows you to see where your friends are on Google Maps.
I have a feeling that location-based social networking is just getting started. According to JiWire, more than half of mobile users want to see location-based advertising. That means Facebook Places has a unique opportunity to capitalize and being that Facebook is the most trafficked website online, it has the market clout needed to rival Google in paid advertising services. Places could just be its ticket to the big leagues.
Tags: Facebook Places, social networking
Posted in Display Advertising, Local Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing for Small Business, Social Media | No Comments »
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