Small Business Marketing

The team at Red Fish Magazine knows how hard it is for Australian business owners to keep pace with the changing business environment and how it can impact quickly on profits. Increasing complexity in compliance, advances in social media and lets not forget managing rising costs the business occurs that are beyond their control.

We have written the first in a series of marketing tipsfor small business owners.

Reviews and Reputation Management.

Most business owners make the time to compare weekly revenue figures, but many do not make the effort to check what customers are saying about them on review sites or their own web pages. Negative reviews about your business or service posted on numerous web locations can be devastating for any business, but in this fast online era, reputation management is now extremely important.

It’s in all business owners’ interests to have the review removed by communicating quickly with those posting them and resolving the matters raised. However, this is not always possible, but those that remain can be turned into positives for the business.

Here are just five of many reasons why:

1/ Many potential customers looking at review sites are sceptical at a list of all positive reviews, seeing it as ‘staged’ or ‘censored.’ The balance in review comments and ratings adds a creditability factor. If you are located in Sydney then its important to have local Sydney business owner or resident reviews.

2/ A business owner’s response will reflect the integrity of the brand. People know mistakes are made but look to see the sincerity of the business owner putting things right.

3/ It gives the business owner the chance to publicly turn an aggrieved customer around to become a long-term advocate. This is a more positive alternative than an aggrieved customer telling their circles of friends offline of the bad experience.

4/ It identifies apparent issues in your business that you may not have been aware of. You can acknowledge this in your response and thank the reviewer for making you aware of it and saying the issue is now fixed. It also gives you the opportunity to offer a significant discount incentive to those reading it to come, check the improvements for themselves and see that customer feedback is important in improving the customer experience.

5/ Web site Sydney search engine rankings for example are based on numerous factors and one is social interaction of your site in Sydney. The negative posting is actually positive for this rating, and if you can turn the situation around with even more social interaction then Google really likes that.

Managing customer disappointments with great customer service skills is the hallmark of a great business. This extends to regular reputation management reviews and having a company policy that is just as thorough as analysing revenue figures.

The All Important Website

There is so much to be said about websites and the optimisation of them for getting visitors converted into sales revenue. Prior to that, you need to ensure your website gets found in the search results of Google, Bing, Yahoo etc.

Google continues with vigour to give visitors they introduce to websites the very best experience possible, and it’s working.

Every search engine optimisation (SEO) training course and forum post is spreading the message that page one ranking is dependant on great content and exceptional user experience.

Through the various changes to their computer automated filters, called algorithms, Google has managed to toss inferior sites out of anyone’s sight.

The ones that remain in the searches give the website visitor what Google has determined is what they want to see.

The following are the three main things Google is looking for if you want your site to rank better than it is now.

1/ Content

The site’s content must be engaging. Google measures this by how long your visitors stay on the site and how many pages of the site they look at.

They are also insisting on your content being well researched, original and not found elsewhere.

Something that is not understood by most website owners is that Google rewards those who offer to refer a visitor to more related content on a higher authority site via an out bound link.

2/ Website navigation

When google crawls your site it first checks if everything works. Then assess’s how easy it is for the visitor to find the likes of your privacy policy, contact us and legal disclosures etc.

Google demands a great user experience in all respects and even measures how fast the new page loads compared to your competitors site.

3/ Social sharing and peer endorsement

This is further confirmation to Google that the content on your site is quality and engaging if it’s being shared on social media platforms.

A very powerful endorsement of your site is when a high authority site in the same niche as yours refers to your site via a link, called a back link. Google rates these highly,especially if they are front page.

Why Use The Services Of A Small Business Marketing Specialist?

A carefully selected small business marketing company lead you on the path of success and keep you focused on the important things. Property development for example is a highly competitive business and developers having to juggle so many things to complete a project on time. They must have a great grasp of building law, accounts, marketing, psychology and business planning in addition to property management. These roles are diverse in nature. In order to survive the unknowns of each project and at the same time maintain the growth of their business, they need to be exceptionally good in all these aspects of their business.

However, to become exceptionally good, you require special expertise and training and this is where a small business marketing coach or mentor can assist to guide you to see opportunities to improve. The majority of developers rise through the design or building ranks of the property niche to get to their current position. They have had lots of training in their field of expertise but often precious little business training. So from property developers to bathroom renovations experts for that matter can benefit from a business coach in so many ways.

The following examples give an insight on how they can help: The Coaching model identifies there are 2 ways of conducting business coaching. The first we call “Dial-A-Friend.” The coach works with whatever issues you bring up that are troubling you. This works on existing acute problems. More management by crisis and not addressing the core issues bringing rise to the crisis at hand. The second approach is to follow a plan. You typically start with the basics in a business: Time Management, Financial Management and Sales Flow. Once this has been addressed and works well, the coach moves on to Marketing and Systemisation of your business.

Most businesses lack in marketing and they have no systems in place. Systemisation means in essence that you have worked through your various activities and documented them. This is especially important in a growing company. Next comes your Team Culture. Everyone in your team must pull the ship in the same direction. The coach works with you to ensure this happens. The final step is to work with you to put your business on Auto-Pilot. This means that you as the owner or CEO has your time freed up so you can work almost exclusively on top level issues. Working on the business and not daily caught up in it. You can also use the time freedom to get your life back in balance. An added benefit is that your company is now worth much more, because you can now sell it for high dollars to professional investors who want businesses that are not reliant on just one member of management.

Business Plan A business coach can craft a solid business plan for the owner of the company they are working with. They will envision the growth of your company five to ten years in time on assumptions and projections you agree to.

Goals Accomplishment – expert workplace coaching& business coach not only helps you formulate suitable growth plans for your business but also schedules steps for you to achieve them. He or she sets realistic targets for you and adequate time limits within which goals should be achieved. The coach also helps formulate marketing plans and even works with you to identify prospective clients to target.

Quality Advice Those who have undergone business coaching are better equipped to understand changes in market conditions and the impact on their business. They can act early on changing market conditions and get a significant advantage over their competitors.

Fewer Mistakes. A coach is like a third eye, he or she ensures that, from their own experiences, your company doesn’t make costly mistakes. He or she is like your business partner yet does not claim a share in business profits.

Technical Assistance – Your Business Coach also mentors you while looking at the various systems you use in your business. He or she helps you evaluate them. If your systems are old or not industry best, they help you to transition to better and more modern methods of doing things. If there are industry software systems available that you should use, but currently are not, they will work with you to introduce them into your business model.

Timely help – You are a very busy person. You need to off-load as much as possible from your plate as you can so you can use your skills where they are needed most. From doing research, monitoring your progress against written plans and strategies. Your coach can lend you a helping hand in just in this and just about every aspect of your business. A Business Coach is a catalyst for success. With expert help, you can take your business to greater heights and remain relaxed even during unfavorable economic phases. If you really want to take your business to the next level, you should take the step of hiring a Marketing Coach with a good list of testimonies and experienced in your industry.

The Red Fish Magazine team have had experience with the team at Hornet Marketing. They are available to businesses in all stages of development, from start ups to established companies that have just got stuck, need the marketing tools and help with a plan to take them to the next level. Contact them today, you have nothing to loose.

Why Use Digital Press Releases ?

These are the best way, with a single release, to gain extensive coverage on the web to promote your company. Syndicators publish the release in the geographic jurisdiction you choose and can be on up to as many as 500 on line media sites.

An examples of a press release is as follows:

Hornet Marketing Confirm Continuing Strong Demand For Their Marketing Services

Sydney Based Hornet Marketing, in an interview with Eleven Media, confirmed the continuing strong demand for their marketing services due in part to the firming migration numbers to the cities in which they operate.