Obviously the goal of any business is to please their customers.  You work hard to build relationships, grow loyalty and improve your reputation in your given industry.  You focus on this by providing excellent service to your customers, being available to your customers, staying on top of your industry’s changes, and working hard each day to grow your business.

Unfortunately, despite your hard work there may well come a time when you face negative publicity.  As humans, our initial reaction to someone saying something negative or harmful to our business is to get angry or defensive.  Before you respond to any negative feedback you receive you need to step back and look at the situation carefully.  Ask yourself the following questions while you take a deep breath:

-Is the comment true?
-If I put myself in the other person’s shoes, can I understand why they feel this way?
-Could something I have done have been misunderstood?
-Am I in the wrong?
-Could I have provided better service in this situation?
-What are my options for rectifying the situation?
-Is the comment publicly accessible, and what type of damage can this do to my business if left alone?

Negative publicity can happen for many reasons.  A misunderstanding, a simple error, differing opinions, a less than ethical competitor, along with many other possibilities can result in negative feedback.  Often times the situation is easily rectified, but the person leaving the feedback did not give you that opportunity before complaining publicly.

When you look at the situation you are dealing with, first consider the source and look at where the comments were left.  You need to analyze how damaging the comments really are to your business and then decide how to respond.  You may decide the best course of action is to simply ignore it all together.  Often times you can go to the source directly and resolve the problem.  This can be ideal as not only are you likely to have the negative feedback removed you may be able to come out of the situation on top, showing that you care about your customers concerns and will go out of the way to fix your errors.

If the situation cannot be resolved offline with the source and you feel the negativity is too important to ignore, you need to carefully formulate a response.  Again, keeping your emotions in check is imperative, or you could end up harming your reputation more with your own actions than the initial feedback would have done if left alone.

Regardless of how you choose to handle the problem, there is one positive result of negative feedback should you look at it in the right light.  Negative publicity, like anything else you encounter in business, is a learning opportunity.  It will give you a chance to rethink your business practices and fine-tune your policies to prevent such a situation from happening again.  In the end, one negative comment is unlikely to destroy your business.  The best thing you can do is respond appropriately and work extra hard to make sure your next customers leave rave reviews.

Marketing your business, regardless of what type of service you provide, is essential to growth in even the best economical climate.  This is especially true in an economy like we are facing today.  Now more than ever you have to go out and find new clients.  Below are a few suggestions on how to do just that, without breaking the bank with high priced advertising campaigns.

Networking and referrals go hand in hand and are some of the most effective ways to meet prospective new clients.  Networking functions are available for nearly every type of business, and it’s beneficial for you to attend as many of these as possible.  A word to the wise, however, try not to treat networking functions like speed dating events.  Many people make the mistake of trying to hand as many people their card as they possibly can in a short span of time.  The end result is a stack of cards that gather dust on someone’s desk.  Instead, meet people, strike up conversation, ask about their business and share a little about yours.  When someone can put a face to a name on a card they are far more likely to remember you.  Even if they have no need for your services, they likely will know someone who does.

Cold calling are the two words most dreaded by business people.  No one really enjoys doing cold calls.  But cold calling has been proven time and time again.  It is the fastest way to source many potential leads in a short period of time.  Be sure to do a little research on effective cold calling and open your dialogue with an interesting and friendly question.  Jumping right into selling yourself and your services is poor etiquette and likely to get you nowhere fast.

In today’s information age, people love to learn.  Put your expertise to good use and promote yourself at the same time.  Trade magazines, informational websites and blogs all need content.  Gather a list of as many of these types of media outlets as you can find.  Make an effort to write at least one eight hundred word article on your area of expertise each month, and send that article to each place on your list.  When your content is used it will give a link to your site, which will drive traffic your way.

Set up a newsletter, and make signing up for it easy to find on y our website.  That way when people come to your site they can join, and send those monthly articles to your list.  Providing reliable information will help build trust and confidence in your abilities, making your name come to mind first when they need services you provide.

Marketing your business in today’s economy does not require much more than some creative thinking.  The way people shop for services is changing, and the pool of funds being spent is smaller than in the past.  While the days of clients finding you may be past, a little effort can go a long way insuring your business stays on top of its game.

Anyone who has any experience in running their own business understands how important word of mouth advertising can be in regards to growing your business.  What better way to prove your worth as an independent service provider than if one of your current clients recommends you to others in their industry?  Referrals do not have to just come from your current clients, however.  There are many other opportunities for referrals that can be quite easy to reach with a little time and effort on your part.

The first step to building a referral network is to identify your target market.  This seems like an obvious step, but it’s often over looked.  If your target market is new start up businesses, think like a new business owner.  You are ready to take your big idea and turn it (hopefully) into a successful business.  What do you need?  Where will you go for help?

Identify ten different sources the new business owner would need to get their business off the ground.  They would need a bank to process payments.  They would need a business license.  They might join the local chamber of commerce.  They will need computer equipment.  They have to order office supplies.  The list goes on and on.

Once you’ve identified ten sources the new business owner is going to rely on, do a little investigative research.  Find ten people in your target market that provide these services.  Then one by one make the effort to know these people.  Visit your local office supply store and introduce yourself to the manager.  Join the local Chamber of Commerce.  You would be surprised at how often the new business owner will ask these sources if they know of anyone who provides the very service you provide.  And even if they don’t ask, if you are friends with the local bank teller, what’s to say they would not just mention your name when they find a new business owner in front of them that might benefit from your services?

Do not let your relationship with these people be one sided.  Find out details about the services they provide, and refer them to your clients as well.  A good give and take relationship can be beneficial for both parties.  You should be able to get a good idea fairly quickly as to whether your new contact will refer people to you.  If they do not fit the bill, remove them from your list and approach another in that field.  When you get ten solid referral partners- again it’s a partner because its give and take- then you have suddenly built your referral bubble to include 100 solid professionals.

With a little work and some creative thinking you can quickly build your network, and do so much faster than you could have built a lasting relationship with 100 clients that will refer you to their colleagues.

Your Marketing Questions Answered

All small business owners want their business to grow, but marketing can sometimes seem confusing and expensive. The best way to market your small business is to increase your customer base and then increase revenue and profit. This process is called organic growth.

But how do I encourage organic growth?
First, acquire new customers so that you have a larger customer base because you then pull revenue from a larger base. Once you have more customers, you can focus on how to increase the revenue from each individual customer by persuading them to buy more products or more expensive products. This way, you first get more customers, and then increase the revenue gained from each customer.

How do I acquire more customers with marketing?
First research and create a marketing plan that targets your specific market. This is called target marketing. Target marketing is very important to small businesses because every business meets a specific need for a product or service. You will waste your time trying to be everything for everyone. Focus your marketing on the type of person who needs your product or service. Then you can target your marketing strategies towards the people who are most likely to buy your product or use your service.

But I’m a small business, and I don’t have a lot of money for marketing!
There are many low-cost ways to market your small business. Consider advertising with your vendors by featuring their products and sharing the advertising costs as well. Create buying incentives for existing customers to attract repeat business. Position yourself as an expert in your field by contacting the local media or giving speeches to the local Chamber of Commerce. Get involved in local community events to get your name out to potential customers or donate your company time or services to local charitable events such as walkathons. Participating in these events often means free publicity.

But how do I know that marketing is working?
Make sure to keep track of the fruits of your labor. This can be as simple as asking customers where they heard of you. You can also code your advertisements and coupons so that you know which method brought the customer to you. This way you can see which marketing strategies are working for you and easily discontinue the ones that aren’t bringing in enough revenue.

There’s so much to do! How do I get started?
Start by setting aside time to create a marketing strategy. Brainstorm ways to market your business, and plot out the steps to make these strategies happen. Focus on implementing one strategy at a time. This will help you keep things organized and enable you to see which strategies work best for you. Implement the easiest and cheapest strategies first, such as asking your customers how they heard of you or offering specials to customers to encourage repeat business.

Ideas for Promoting Your Small Business

Promoting your business is the key to success, but it can be confusing to new business owners. Advertising is the main way to promote your business, but advertising alone doesn’t always lead to runaway success. Here are some easy ways to promote your business outside of advertising.

1. Show your existing customers that you appreciate them.
Making your customers feel important and appreciated can encourage repeat business. Start by saying thank you in person, on receipts and invoices, and with mailers or surveys. Say thank you by offering a free gift with their purchase, such as T-shirts, key chains or pens. Gifts with your logo or business name keep your company in your customer’s mind while also showing your customers how much you value them. Offering additional products or services for free with purchase can also say thank you without breaking the bank.

2. Get the word out to potential customers.
Attract customers to your place of business by holding demonstrations of your product or services both outside your physical store (if you have one) or at trade shows or local events. Get the word out on the internet by creating a website, but don’t forget to feature your web address on business cards, letterheads and mailers. Newsletters are also a great way to show your knowledge of your field and feature new products or services.

3. Be an expert in your field.
One possibility for exposure is to write an article for a trade journal. You can then include copies of the article with other promotional materials or mail it out to your customers to show that you are an expert in your field. Consider holding seminars on your product type or services to share your knowledge with other businesses in your area. Just remember to schedule any seminars well in advance, market them, and follow up with attendees.

4. Get involved in your community.
Research local events in your area such as design or culinary contests, holiday events, or charitable events. Think about where your product or service will fit into these local events. For example, cooking competitions are great ways for restaurants or cookware stores to showcase their products. Are you a member of your local Chamber of Commerce? Consider joining to get your name out to community leaders. Your business can also get exposure in your local community by donating to charitable causes. Many organizations are in need of a wide range of consumer products as well as professional service time. For example, if you have a meeting facility, consider hosting a charitable event. Remember, volunteers are potential customers too.

5. Offer specials or coupons on your products or services.
Coupons can be an effective way of encouraging repeat business, but remember that to be the most effective, the price break on coupons should be at least 15%. However, while discounts and specials may bring new customers through the door, discount buyers don’t always become repeat customers, so make sure and monitor the results of your coupons.

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In a world where we feel some odd compelling compulsion to update not only our friends, but often total and complete strangers about every minute detail of our daily life, Google decides to join in the fun by launching yet another way to do just that with Google Buzz.  It seems as if we are almost in the midst a latter-day arms race with all of these different social networking platforms racing forward to reach the very same goals- be it offering email, short status updates, or pumping up geo-location tools.  Google Buzz pushes these limits from a purely technology based stand point, but the real question is do we really need all of this?  And not just need, but do we really want all of this as well?

One of the major problems with Google Buzz is that it works off of the Gmail platform.  That may be very convenient for those of us that actually log into our Gmail account often, but I don’t know how many people out there really do that versus using a email program or using another email service provider all  together.  Unlike twitter and Facebook, limiting your user base to those who actively use Gmail seems like putting Buzz in a tiny bubble when compared to the likes of the competition.

Many people are not fond of geo-locating aspects of other social media providers.  Not everyone wants the world to know what coffee house they are sitting in or where their kid’s get dropped off at school.  The nice thing about Google Buzz is that you can decide with each message you send whether that message is public or private as well as whether you want your location listed with your post.

So if you feel the need to complain about your mother-in-law while sitting in her living room, you can now use your mobile device and send a rant via Google Base.  If your mother-in-law knows your user information, you can simply mark that little blurb private so she can’t find it after the fact.  And you can turn off your geo-locating function so that none of your friends take pity on you and egg her house on your behalf.  See just how useful these tools can be?

The ability to turn off certain functions and features allows us to open our eyes a bit and consider just how much we want to really share about our personal lives with the world when we partake in social media, despite what the capabilities of the technology happen to offer.

The general consensus of those I know that have used Google Buzz is that Twitter, Four Square and Facebook can learn a few new tricks from Google Buzz.  Once they catch on to these simple ideas they will continue to surpass Google Buzz, if for no other reason than the fact they are not limited in their user pool like Google Buzz is with Gmail.

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Taken from http://wordle.net

If you have been around for any length of time, you have probably noticed that certain search engines have done exceptionally well, and as a result gaining popularity and having their stocks soar through the roof.  On the flip side, you may have noticed certain search engines that did not keep up, and as a result have gone the way of the dodo.  Ever wonder exactly how that works?  I mean, a search engine is a search engine right?  Sort of… but not quite.

Like any other business you encounter on a day-to-day basis, profit is everything.  Why would you be in business if there were no profit to be made?  Sure, typing in your keywords and getting back a thousand possible websites to browse is free.  But to the search engine, paying their employees, expanding operations and maintaining the highest traffic websites out there does not come without cost.  So how exactly do these mega search engines make their money?  And why do they care where you start your search?  Here’s a little insight to the how and why of search engine success.

Traffic refers to the number of individual people that come to a website, and how often they visit that site.  Traffic is a numbers game, and a competitive one at that.  Every website out there is fighting for their piece of the action, and search engines are no exception to this rule.

The amount of traffic that a search engine attracts is dependent entirely upon keeping those visiting people happy.  If you went to a search engine and typed in what you are looking for and got nothing relative back, you likely would never use that search engine again.  Word of mouth travels fast, but nowhere quite as fast as the internet.  So to keep your searchers happy, relevant and useful results is the key to profitability.

Traffic is turned into profits in several ways.  Paid advertisers, like search engines, want and need traffic.  The advertisers are the bread and butter for search engine companies.  Did you ever notice those listings that pop up at the top and to the sides of your search results?  Generally, these are relevant websites that may well have what you’re seeking.  The company’s whose websites appear in these prominent spots are paying for that position. When you click on the link featured, the search engine gets paid, plain and simple.  The advertisers hope is that when you click on that link it will result in you becoming a customer of their company or a follower of their cause.

It’s a delicate balance that is profit driven, as with any business.  The search engine keeps you happy and coming back for more by giving relevant results and reliable service.  Advertisers that want your business or loyalty place their website listings front and center of those free searches you just preformed in hopes that you will click and find what you need, which in turn generates income for the advertiser.  The more successful this string of events becomes, the higher the stocks for the search engine become, and the cycle begins again.

Setting up your own website can be a challenge.  Before you even begin designing your site, it’s important to ensure you do not make a mistake in your website hosting choices.  To the amateur, it may seem like all service providers are offering the same product- hosting for your website.  But in reality, cheaper is not always better and there are some important points to consider outside of the price tag alone.

What makes website hosting cost just a few dollars a month on one service provider and significantly more on the next?  What you are probably seeing is the difference between shared hosting and dedicated hosting.  Below we will take a closer look at the benefits of each, so you can find exactly what you need for your particular website.

Shared hosting is the most commonly used form of hosting for smaller websites that expect to get a minimal amount of hits per month.  It is significantly more affordable due to the fact you are sharing a server with multiple other websites.  For just a few dollars a month you will likely get your domain name, design tools and email capabilities, which is all the average small to medium sized website will need to be successful.  Be sure to look at the fine print, and find an option that allows unlimited disk space and monthly transfers to avoid hidden costs down the road as your website grows.

While shared hosting is by far the most popular option due to its low cost, the trade off is in the lack of control you have over the server.  If one of the other websites hosted on the shared server sees a huge increase in traffic, it can negatively affect the performance of your own website.

A dedicated hosting plan is a bit more complex.  The server that hosts your website hosts your site alone.  You can choose between managing your own server in your home or place of business or having your service provider house and maintain the server for you.  If your website is very popular you will most likely want to choose a dedicated hosting solution as you have the ability for near unlimited traffic.  The actions of other websites will not affect your site, making it much more stable for your fans.

Regardless of whether you choose to buy or lease your dedicated server, there is a significant investment to be made.  Aside from the initial cost of the equipment there is maintenance to consider.  You will choose the operating system that will run your server, customize your tool sets, file structures, programming languages and special features.  A dedicated server is generally not a task you will want to undertake unless you have the knowledge to properly maintain it, however if you do a dedicated server is a powerful tool than can be an excellent investment over the shared hosting options.

You should carefully consider the needs of your website, and find the solution that best meets those needs.  As with any investment it is best to check the reliability and customer satisfaction of the service provider you choose.

If you are like InBusiness you prefer value links over trashy ones. Websites that build value will increase in strength over time. Associating with other websites that build value will do the same. Today we bring you two of such website that have the potential to drive business to you as well as get some quality backlinks. Besides those benefits, the website rock! Halfoffdepot.com and groupon.com are two websites that can save you a lot of money. Halfoffdepot.com has dozens of unbelievable cheap deals to take advantage of from really great restaurants, bars, and events. They offer 50-90% discounts. As a consumer that rocks. As a business it is a great opportunity to win over completely new customers. The best part is that both websites allow you to control how many of these discounts are let out the door. That means that you wont have a run on your business that you didn’t want. Each offers the chance to get a valuable link back to you website as well. These is the kind of internet marketing you NEED to be doing for your small business.

When I give a presentation on developing websites, a popular question always comes up.  They ask me how long does a website take to create.  There are many factors that come into play when developing a website.  And each element has an effect on the time it will take to design and build the site.

Before you begin designing your website you need to outline the sections you will need on your site.  We call this a sitemap.  This process helps you outline the content and flow of the website.  Next you should create a wireframe to illustrate where you want your information to be placed and the functions your website will need.  Check your competition and identify the right keywords for your website.  Depending on how much time you can devote to these steps, then can take a few days or a few weeks.

When building a site you may have to ask yourself what comes first, the design or the copy,  there really is no rule on this one as everyone works differently.  Some people need a design to write their content to match.  A different approach is to write out all your website content first, and through this process you can find the inspiration for the design in the word.  The important thing is that there is some alignment between the two areas.

You don’t have to have your copy finished to start the design, however having a sizable percentage will help you have a strong idea of the direction you want for your design.  When doing this all yourself you need to commit to tackling your content for an hour or two a day.  Use your wireframe and sitemap as a guide to help you.

When using a pre-designed template instead of customizing a look for your website you may want to spend time finding some stock photography to add to your site to differentiate the look and enhance your content.

Custom designed sites  need to be converted to the code that makes them work online.  The process of doing that can take from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the complexity of the code.  The next step is to drop in content.  It’s not just copy and paste, but styling the text and creating cross links within the copy.  Even with prepackaged solutions you will need to spend some time looking over your content and finding ways to make it work better.

It does not matter how your website is built you absolutely need to take the time to test its functionality.  Browser testing is one of the most important things to check.  Is your site looking and acting correctly in the main browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome?  If your site uses security make sure that is working correctly.  Also do a few test orders to make sure that the transactions are working properly.

As you can see, how much time it takes to build a site depends on many factors.  You can set dates and milestones, but make sure they are realistic.  Leave time for revisions and testing. Websites are meant to change, so it is acceptable to launch your site even if you feel like it is not completely finished, as long as all the testing is done.  You can always add more content as you go, which will give you some new reasons to send emails out to your customer base.

The needs of start up companies are vast.  They include access to technology, professional support, publicity  and everything in between.  However making sales is a small company’s most critical requirement.  One way to generate cost effective sales is to take advantage of indirect sales.  In other words have other people do the selling for you. Below I will discuss five examples of indirect sales.

Affinity:  If you have ever received a mailer from your college alma mater or an industry association, of which you are a member, offering a special discount on a new credit card offer then you have seen affinity marketing.  This is a relationship where a company such as the credit card company will partner with another company or organization that has existing customer or member relationships.  The credit card company pays a referral fee to the organization for any new customers generated through the mailing.

Affiliate Partnership:  This is nearly identical to an affinity partner, except this is the term typically used when commissions are paid through sales from clicking links online.  Some fees are based on the click, while others are based on the purchases made on the affiliate’s website.

Independent Manufacturers Representative:  Most manufactured products sectors have entire fields of manufacturer’s representatives, which are either individuals or professional companies with corporate structures.  These people or companies represent product lines made by other companies.  As experts in their respective fields who have strong relationships with the salespeople in their industry, they get compensated on what they sell.  They sell products to customers such as retail stores.  However the manufacturer still invoices the customer and pays commission to the manufacturer’s representative.  Pretty much all industries have an association that represents it.  These associations can be very useful in gaining knowledge about the industry.  Through an association you can often find manufacturers that service that industry.

Distributors:  Like independent manufacturer’s representative a distributor is a company that sells products produced by another company.  The big difference is that the distributor takes on more financial risk, and also requires a larger compensation.  A distributor will buy products directly from the manufacturer and stock the inventory at their warehouse. They sell and ship to the customer and invoice the customer.  Due to the increased risk and services by distributors they do generally require a greater wholesale discount so that they can sell to their customers and still make a profit.

Value Added Reseller:  Similar to the manufacturer’s representative, mentioned above, value added resellers are experts in their field, usually technology, and they provide services to their customers.  Value added resellers need a menu of products and services they can provide beyond their own services. They will be given a wholesale price and they will sell to the customer at the sale price.
Most business owners are the best salespeople for their own products or services.  That is how a company’s first sales are usually made.  Indirect sales can help a small company grow much more rapidly.  Finding these companies can be challenging.  As with most information about your marketing the best source can be your current target customer.  You can ask them who they think are the best organizations, manufacturer’s representatives, distributors or resellers.

When you go to a presentation or seminar on networking you may get the impression that most networking groups are just people like you trying to build up a new business.  The people you meet at these networking groups are there to learn something new, and tend to be young.  However if you go to a regular networking event or join a networking organization you will find out that many of the people there tend to be older, established business people. In the typical business networking group the members range in age form 20s to 60s, with about 2/3 of them being over 40.  There is a good reason for this.  It is usually the seasoned professionals who have recognized and learned to use the benefits of networking to their advantage.  These are the people that have used networking throughout the their business life and are fully aware of the competitive advantage it offers.  Older networkers often become mentors for younger business people, which is a huge leg up for someone new to the skill of networking.

The best networking groups are the ones whose membership is diverse.  Those groups will not only have people ranging in age, but also a good balance of men and women, a mixture of races and ethnicities representative in the local community, and varied professions.  Such groups offer the best opportunities to get referrals from outside your immediate circle of experience, which then puts you on the fast track to expanding your business.

Customers can be a good source of referrals, so why do you need networking groups?  Well a happy client may talk you up to a friend who needs the service you provide, but it often ends there.  A customer who is merely satisfied is not likely to go out of their way to tell others about your business.  Of course bad news travels faster than good news; a customer who is unhappy with you will tell a lot of people, up to eleven times as many as a happy customer.  Customer based word of mouth can hurt your business more than helping it.
However a networking partner will always be on the lookout for good customers for your business, just as you are always looking for people to send to your networking partners.  Networkers also will know more about your business and your target customers, and they are experts in marketing your business by word of mouth, the most powerful kind of marketing that exists.  This kind of referral generation lasts longer and brings you a steady stream of high quality business. The kind that doesn’t turn around and go to your competitor as soon as they have a sale.  You can get more good referrals from one or two good networking sources than from all your customers who come through your doors.  Most importantly, the customers you gain from networkers will be the kind you want to keep.

In the story of Chicken Little we’re told that the sky is falling, and we laugh at him.  However, it seems that if you are told the same story consistently, eventually you will believe it.  This seems to ring true with branding. Just because everyone else is saying or doing something does not mean it works.

All too often I see entrepreneurs throw  thousands of dollars away trying to grow their businesses with traditional branding techniques because – that is what everyone else is doing.  These branding myths can break a company before it even gets off the ground.  Times have changed for marketing.  Technology has created new ways to build and brand your company.  Traditional techniques do not always work anymore.  Being aware of the following five myths will help you avoid making these mistakes in branding.

Myth: Offering consistent and great product will produce a successful business.

Of course we know that the quality of your product of service is important.  But it has little to do with how successful your new or established business will become.  The truth is that some profitable, successful brands offer marginal product while some failing businesses offer amazing products.  The success of your brand venture is dependent on more than just the quality of your product.  Unfortunately creating the perfect product will not necessarily lead to the world beating a path do you door.  Your superior product or service will make you proud, but will not make money by itself.

Solution:  You could launch a beta test for your product or service to start getting exposure.  Utilize social networking sites and ask readers for their opinions and feedback.  A great way to start building your email list is to post on a social network and link back to your site with the email capture and a survey readers can download and participate in.  Make the service about them, not about you or your product or service.

Myth:  The more you spend on advertising the more profitable you will become.

You will hear this one from every advertising sales person out there. Consistent repetition gives this myth credibility. If you do anything in business just because it is what everyone else is doing you are in big trouble. Many brands spend huge amounts of cash on their monthly advertising budget. Most of this money is wasted on ineffective ads though. There are much smarter ways to build a brand.  There is a place for advertising in branding, but it is brand maintenance, not brand building.  Advertising lacks the credibility that building a brand needs.

Solution:  The best way to build credibility is to use the media.  Online print and broadcast media outlets are often looking for quality content and contributions.  You can offer valuable tips tied with current events for readers, viewers and listeners.  You will gain a ton of exposure and credibility if your campaign is planned and well executed.

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Business owners are in a rush to jump on one of the most effective marketing tactics during this recession era -public relations.  Media outlets are receiving up to thousands of press releases every single day.  However only about 3% of press releases even produce results.  The key is working with the media’s attention to have a great campaign in order to achieve the results you desire.

Building one on one relationships with key members of the press is one of the best public relations strategies.  Identify a core group of media outlets that can deliver coverage important to your business.  Of course this does take a bit of homework in order to create your own short list of the media that influence your customers when they are considering buying what you sell.  Your list may include a combination of blogs, magazines, newspapers, radio stations, or television.

Appeal to editors, journalists, publishers and producers in the same way you would appeal to your best customers.  Learn exactly what they need from you and how you can help them.  Little is more frustrating to a journalist than a pitch that doesn’t even apply to them.  Examine the past work of every editor, journalist or producer on your list and tailor your story carefully before you contact them initially.  You will build strong relationships with the media members you target by consistently sending them what they need to get the attention of their readers, viewers, or listeners.

Making sure you choose the right tool is key.  While public relations professions appear to be divided on the validity of a standard release, it remains an excellent tool for making first time contact with media professions about newsworthy topics.  Whether you should send a full blow press release, pitch a story idea, send a tips sheet, or put out a media alert depends on several factors, particularly the type of story you are pitching and the individual preferences of the media outlets.

The problem is that so many press releases don’t contain news, or worse, are modified sales pitches.  Before sending a release make sure its headline contains a statistic, fact or some compelling piece of information that is new or revelatory.  Make sure that your first sentence has the power to sell your story.  Do not send a stream of ho-hum pitches in the hopes that over time you can capture attention.  This will simply cause the recipients to ignore you.

Before sending your pitches, contact the media outlets to find out whether your targeted recipients prefer to receive then by email or some other means.  If they choose email paste your release in the body of the email rather than sending an attachment, which may not get opened.

You will need to follow up in order to seal the deal.  The real work begins after you have built your in house press list and sent your materials.  Follow up is essential for taking your public relations relationships to the next level.  You can make contact by phone, email or both.  The most important thing is to determine that your pitch was received and whether there is any interest in that particular item.  Most of all, you want to uncover what type of information you can provide that each media contact will find compelling.
Do not be discouraged if your first few stories get little or no attention.  Once you discover exactly what the journalists are looking for you can fine tune the subsequent pitches until you become an information source for them.  That is when you will see your new public relations relationships generate coverage that will motivate customers to choose you instead of your competition.

I have mentioned before that search engines change up their algorithms and they do vary quite a bit. Most of us spend a great deal of time really paying attention to statistics, different results and keep up with the way that the different search engines index things. This is a good thing- you have to keep yourself aware of exactly what changes when so that you can stay at the top of the game as someone who does do search optimization. The issue though is that as soon as you have the system figured out, that is about where it changes again.

However, you kind of perform this balancing act and it keeps you able to change with the searches. One thing has remained a constant- the need for real, organic search engine results and though the ways to get them changes a bit as more and more adopt a more user friendly way of going about that- this is something that is not likely to end any time soon. I am willing to bet that the ‘user friendly’ aspect of search engine optimization is going to be coming more to the forefront of things as time goes on. However, this adaptation is something that really takes a great deal of time, effort and being able to steer clear of some of the more unethical practices that some feel are necessary- they aren’t, you just have to be sure that you are keeping aware of the changes and planning accordingly.

For the time being, though there are a few really essential pieces to being able to maintain a fairly well optimized website. You need to make sure that you have clean, well planned navigation, a well written, very clear copy, your titles and meta tags need to be in place to help identify relevant keywords and phrases, and your coding needs to be very simple and polished. Add in links that work well with your content- good, short descriptors, and continue to update regularly.

The cleaner your site is, the easier it is for both search engines and users to navigate, and this helps. I often talk of balancing both user friendliness and search engine optimization because it is important for not just a boost in the serps, but a longer term push. Not only that, it leads to better business, which is the end result of most of these online marketing problems- so, it’s overall very well worth the effort to make sure that you have these key things in place with all of your web sites.

A little warning, this is pretty disturbing. This happened back in April, but it serves to make a very good point both about how viral video works, and online reputation management.

But, the point of my sharing this with you is that it took less than twenty four hours for these two workers’ videos to make it to the very tip top of the Youtube rankings, and incredibly high in other search rankings. Not only that, it spread so quickly that almost every social media and news media outlet picked it up. Before Dominos even knew what was up- they were already everywhere. The update you do not see in this news piece, about this is that particular Dominos franchise branch lost so much business because of this- even once it was out that the two employees in question were fired, that they went under. (Those two employees were, incidentally charged with felony food tampering.)

“Try as he might, the franchisee couldn’t get enough people to come back and the store was no longer viable,” Dominos Spokesperson Tim McIntyre said. “In their attempt to be funny, they left a lot of victims in their wake – the business owner, 20 of their fellow co-workers who are now out of work, community groups that benefited from the store’s outreach programs, on and on.”

The franchisee, Kevin Henderson stated that his business had been hit with a fifty eight percent loss, shortly after the videos made their rounds. Initially, Dominos tactic was to not respond- but that did not work because the videos had already gone viral.

The franchisee had tried a number of things- as did Dominos, to counter it, but failed, ultimately, as you can see. Now, there’s a good lesson in this- there is a preventive side to online reputation management that some do not take as seriously as perhaps they should. Building up a following online, and really gaining the trust that you need to back you when something is negatively said- that’s important. Your web visibility is no longer just something you can do to further your marketing- it may mean more than that in some cases. Hopefully no one has to deal with issues as this Dominos franchisee did, but, there are always people who enjoy using online mediums to really blast companies, businesses and other individuals. While you cannot really control what someone says about your business on the internet- you can have a solid backing in place to prevent it from doing the worst case scenario- this is an aspect that is becoming increasingly important.

Yes, this was simply put a very disgusting and disturbing prank. But for those 20 employees, and for Kevin Henderson- it was much more than that. Understanding how to manage online reputation is very important, not just due to extreme cases like this, but others who have seen dips in their bottom line due to negative reviews and otherwise.

If you’re looking at purchasing a low cost domain name that will actually help your business, you need to think about the options that are out there. In short, the domain is the URL address for your website- it’s the bit after “www.” and usually these are things like .com, .co, .uk, .org, .edu, and .net and the like. When you’re looking at the terms and everything- a top level domain is going to be your site. That’s it, it’s the one that’s at the root. For instance this website is:

http://inbis.us/

That is the top level domain, and when you go to the About Me page, this is the second level:

http://inbis.us/about.html

If you have your business website hosted by a particular service provider, you end up with a two part URL. This will include the provider’s address as the first, as it’s the root, then it will have the webmaster address as the second- this would be a lower level domain name and it looks pretty choppy.
Pages like this usually get sent to the more supplementary pages of the search, and this doesn’t really help much. So, for the most part, if you’re working with a webmaster it is highly likely that they are going to look for a better name- that is, they’ll register your name. If this is a do it yourself SEO scenario, this is where you would want to go ahead and find a domain name that makes sense, is top level and is something people can remember easily.

If your budget is tight, you may have considered signing on with one of the cheaper domain registries only to find that you also have to host with them. Worse, signing up for a free site to find out they plaster your site with ads. For small business owners, or those in start up, this may be something of a minor hurdle- but it is one that I don’t see too many people talk about. This is probably because even when you’re thinking about small business, you imagine a great budget for this sort of thing- problem is, and I’ve found this out, not all businesses in start up have that kind of wiggle room. So, these things may be a temporary option for those who perhaps do not have the kind of budget to obtain both the domain and hosting. Make sure that you’re dealing with an honest and reputable provider who has great customer service- I cannot count the number of times I’ve seen people get saddled with lousy customer service and have to deal with all sorts of issues because of that. However, once you’ve got all of this in place, think about what you’re calling your website.

A short, memorable domain name is best, something attention catching, but at the same time- not all that easy to misspell. It’s best if you can manage to indicate what sort of products you’re selling, or the services you offer in the title- but if you can’t, your company name is often a good alternative.

Okay so your in house web team thinks training is a chore.  It doesn’t have to be though!  Here are some tips to easily make training fun for everyone.

Create an easily accessible mini reference library.  Most people have a level of motivation to learn on their own and self-study.  If you can buy quality resources that your team has access to, you are helping them train themselves, and this is very affordable as training goes.  Compare the cost of a mini library to the increase in traffic and conversion they can bring.  Self-education is the best investment you can make.  Additionally having the resources on hand in your reference library will not only help the current staff, but new team members in the future as well, whereas if you sent your team to a conference then only those who’ve gone would retain the information.

Join them!  Set up a group study session, and join the group.  Joining your team for a study session shows a certain humility, and admits that you can learn from them as well.  Think about this when considering setting up a group study session:  Studies have shown that you will remember 95% of what you teach others, but only 10% of what you read.

Create contests and competitive games.  People competing to learn have more motivation to do so.  If you have enough people, break them up into teams.  The strong will automatically help the weak on their teams, in order to improve the teams overall knowledge and skills.  Let there be prizes, such as winning team picks Friday’s lunch, or they choose a group activity for the entire web team.

Since the ultimate goal is to improve the business, how about awards for the idea or improvement of the month.  Congratulate whoever came up with the idea for generating the greatest conversion lift, or reducing the volume of support calls, etc.  And bring it full circle by making the award a new purchase to the reference library that they get to choose.

Giving non-analysts access to the “read only” analytics is a great idea for improving job satisfaction.  This way people who have contributed to the traffic growth, conversion rate or other KPIs can login when they want to and see the effects of their work.  Craftsmen get to see and feel the effects of a their hard work, so should your team.

Be likable.  People are much more willing to help, listen and respect you if they like you.  Apply one on one time where needed.  Try taking a different team member out to lunch once a week.  If they like you they will be more open to sharing their problems that may affect job performance.

What I hope has come across here is that training your web team doesn’t have to be drudgery, or a chore.  You can make it fun if you use the right techniques, and have the right motivators.

Recently I read an article about turning Gmail into your personal hub and nerve center, by Steve Rubel. If you have not read it yet, I suggest that you do. They actually contain helpful and insightful ways of thinking, and offer fresh ideas for using many of the tools available to us today. The biggest problem I see is that many of his solutions include third party applications and workarounds. Seems to me that this is a bubble gum and duct tape sort of solution. What we are missing is the seamless integration of different parts.

I confess that I do use Gmail and believe it to be an excellent tool, despite it’s borg like nature. Gmail is handy. A few months back when my book keeper asked me for a receipt that I’d forgotten to print previously, I was able to find the receipt in Gmail in just a few seconds by typing the exact dollar amount into the Gmail search. Being able to retrieve the email receipt almost instantly shows that Gmail is amazingly useful and powerful.

However using the Google bookmarking tools is inadequate compared to other places, such as delicious. I love delicious for their bookmarking tools, but they lack the ability to permanently archive a copy of the page, such as furl.net does. So if the page disappears or falls victim to linkrot I don’t lose the data with furl. None of the bookmarking services have a really good search function. Delicious let’s you search your own notes, but not the actual page or archived content.

Google Reader is a great tool, and I’m a big user of it. The new search feature is wonderful. If everyone who published RSS feeds published them in full instead of partial that would increase the usefulness of Google Reader, which isn’t really Google’s fault.

An additional problem is that these services do not communicate with one another. They don’t share data. It is up to me to remember if I bookmarked something in delicious or read it in Google Reader. Even if I were using all Google services there is no way to search through everything at the same time.
Google Desktop comes close as it allows you to search your computer as well as the network drives you have specified, and your emails (if you can managed to configure your firewall for that). But it does not search your Google Reader feeds, or any of the bookmarking services you use.

I suggest a tighter integration of these already existing services. You should be able to type your keywords into a search box and get results from your calendar, email, RSS feeds, bookmarks, Flickr photos, and even news services.

If that sounds like a personalized search then you missed something. I did not include pages from the web at large in the list. Google Desktop has an option that allows you to decide whether or not to include web results. That’s as it should be.

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