Startup Grind Lansing
New Video: DayStarr Communications – What to Expect When You’re Expecting…Fiber Internet
In this video, we help DayStarr carefully detail what customers should expect when they get their fiber internet installed.
For more information: https://daystarr.net
Guest Post: Resources for Business: How to Manage Marketing Data
The appropriate management of marketing data ensures the future success of your business model. If your data gets lost or corrupted, you’ll have to start over from scratch. Here are some of the techniques that you should invest in to streamline the management process.
Enable Security Features
Software and hardware updates should be completed in a timely fashion. This is what protects your systems to data breaches and loses. Making security your top priority is more than just good customer service. If you manage sensitive customer information as a part of your marketing database, having this information stolen gives your company a bad reputation in the industry. You don’t want to have to inform your customers that their information was stolen when you could have prevented it.
Invest in Database Management
Database management can be a time consuming task if you don’t have the right tools in place to help you handle it. Using cloud managed services for cloud data and IT support gets you started down the right path. What this essentially does is takes those tasks off of your plate so that you can focus on the matters of running your business. Queries for information can be formulated for the specific needs of your business and eliminate lost productivity time.
Focus on Backups
Backups can occur in a variety of manners. Using cloud based software is becoming one of the more common ways to store your information offsite. This can be especially important if one of your systems crashes or introduces a virus into your whole network. Restoring from these backups takes out some of the risk that may be associated with doing business. Another reason for a backup is that you won’t lose data from your server platform.
Clear out Obsolete Files
When marketing files or profiles are no longer valid, clearing them out saves on the amount of data that you need to store. It also eliminates the chance of sending out old data to your customers. You won’t make the mistake of not being able to anticipate the needs of your customers if you’ve kept your marketing files up-to-date. Another aspect to this involves developing a user interface that’s intuitive so that your customers can update their own information in a reliable manner.
The importance of managing your data works to increase your chances of success in the business world. Use these strategies to keep performing at an optimal level when it comes to your marketing platform.
Bio: Rachelle Wilber is a freelance writer living in the San Diego, California area. She graduated from San Diego State University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Media Studies. She tries to find an interest in all topics and themes, which prompts her writing. When she isn’t on her porch writing in the sun, you can find her shopping, at the beach, or at the gym. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook: @RachelleWilber; https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009221637700
Guest Post: 3 Threats Every Company Faces at Some Point
As if the normal challenges of running a successful business weren’t enough, it’s likely that your business will face certain major threats during the course of business that could bring your business to its knees. Fortunately, by understanding these threats in advance, you can adequately prepare for them to ensure you’re able to weather them successfully. Here are three threats that every company faces that you should look out and prepare for now.
IT Threats
Businesses of all sizes face IT threats of all kinds. As your business grows, it becomes a more attractive target to hackers who want to profit from the theft of your proprietary information. Unprepared, a successful hacking can suspend business operations and lead to lawsuits from customers who have their information stolen.
That’s why it’s crucial that you instruct your employees on proper protocol for safe web and email browsing. In addition, it’s important to invest in quality security tools for all aspects of your business’s IT exposure. This includes network security, individual workstation security, and database security, among other solutions.
Injury Threats
If your business has a physical location or sells a physical product, your business will likely face the threat of a customer lawsuit at some point. Whether it’s a lawsuit resulting from a trip and fall at your business’s storefront or a lawsuit resulting from damages resulting from a product you sell, litigation comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s important, then, that you do all you can to minimize any threats through the use of proper quality control.
When it comes to a physical location, you must do all you can to encourage your employees to report and correct any slip, trip, or fall hazards as soon as they see them. When it comes to physical products, proper testing is vital before shipping a particular product to your customers. Ultimately, though, adequate business insurance is the best protection against threats in this area. Without insurance, the assets of your business itself, and even your personal assets could be at risk if a lawsuit should occur.
Lack of Demand
There are plenty of variables that can cause a lack of demand for your business’s products or services. Whether it’s a localized or national recession, changing customer tastes, the appearance of a viable competitor, or a range of other issues, a lack of demand can cause an insurmountable disruption that results in the closure of your business. To help mitigate this risk, you should do your due diligence as a business owner to constantly be aware of changing market conditions.
This includes reading business reports from the region and the nation, understanding current consumer tastes and trends, and seeking how to differentiate and diversify your business to protect it from competitors. Though these steps don’t guarantee success, they certainly help provide confidence when you face rough waters.
Press Ahead
Every business is bound to experience ups and downs over its lifetime. When your business is in a slump, then, it’s important to step back and work to get the big picture. This will help alleviate concerns you have about current struggles by placing them in the context of the long-term success of your business. When you take on the right mindset regarding the struggles your business faces, you’ll be better prepared to take on these struggles successfully.
Anica is a professional content and copywriter from San Francisco, California. She loves dogs, the ocean, and anything outdoor-related. She was raised in a big family, so she’s used to putting things to a vote. Also, cartwheels are her specialty. You can connect with Anica here.
New Video: Child and Family Charities – Thank You Devin!
This year at their fundraising breakfast, Child and Family Charities honored Devin, the Angel House therapy dog, for his 8 years of service. This is his story.
For more about Child and Family Charities: https://www.childandfamily.org/
Guest Post: Up Your Marketing Game: 4 Ways to Make Your Business Stand out from the Rest
As a business owner, you have probably come across the disheartening statistics around the high business failure rates. There are plenty of reasons why businesses fail with the lack of ideas to beat the competition, topping the list. Standing out from the rest in the same industry is vital to your firm’s success. Unfortunately, even though most people understand that concept, far too many business owners fail to put it into practice. So, here are four hacks that will make your firm stand out.
Provide Unique and Extraordinary Services and Products
“What makes your business different?” You will need to back up your answer with tangible evidence either through how you provide your services or the uniqueness of your product. Clients have to mark you from the rest of the market, and it’s only possible when you offer something unique. For instance, custom fit jogging shoes has become a norm today. But how do you deliver the service? Perhaps include activities such as watching the client walk or run, advise them professionally and get down to business.
Address Customer Complains and Suggestions
If you want to bring more customers in and retain initial clients, you have to alleviate their pain and give them what they deserve. But you can’t do this if you do not listen to what your clients want. Consider asking them for feedback after purchases and services. Address sensible pain points that they might have brought forward and also apply suggestions that could work for your business. You might also try explaining to them why their tips cannot work at the moment for your business. Engage them to create that business-clientele relationship.
Narrow Your Niche
You cannot specialize in everything. This is a straightforward rule that most businesses ignore. Pick your strongholds and focus on delivering the best. Adapt a unique model that other companies don’t offer, recruit the best experts in the industry, and your target market will get your attention. You could bring in a marketing agency to help you reach your specific target market. Always remember, when your business tries to serve everyone, you end up serving no one.
Build an Excellent and Attractive Company Culture
An attractive company culture not only helps you attract and retain top talent, but it’s also proven to be a powerful marketing tool. You want to build a firm that potential employees are fighting to be part of or perhaps one that people are excited to go on Monday mornings.
These four great ways are an excellent place to start. They should give you more inspiration to stand out rather than fitting it.
Emma Sturgis
Emma is a freelance writer based out of Boston, MA. She writes most often on health and education. When not writing, she enjoys reading and watching film noir. Say hi on Twitter @EmmaSturgis2
New Video: A Fahrenheit Massage Story
Kristin is not your normal massage therapist. Her ability to know where your pain is and to focus on that area is an art. Also, her knowledge of how your body is responding to that pain and what to do between trips to see her. She is based in Lansing, MI and you can schedule some time with her on her website.
For more information: https://www.fahrenheitmassage.com
Guest Post: 5 Ways to Growth Hack Your Business and Make It Thrive
Even though it’s become a buzzword in corporate and marketing circles, growth hacking is not without its merit. These quick and low-cost methods of marketing can have a huge impact on growth, especially for smaller businesses. Below we offer a guide on how to take these less travelled paths and use them to stand out from the crowd.
What Is Growth Hacking?
Growth hacking itself isn’t all that easy to define. Essentially, it means using a number of marketing techniques and design choices in order to quickly generate sales. All this is done with only one goal in mind: growth.
The process itself is pretty straightforward: first, you run any of the number of analytics tools that will help you determine which pages or sections of your website generate the most traffic. You then focus on one of these areas and run a brief experiment trying to convert that traffic into sales.
This could mean anything, from redesigning your contact page to adding social media buttons or testimonials. As long as the change you made is quick, easy to implement, and results in the growth of one or more metrics, it’s considered a success.
If you are a small or mid-size business owner, hacking growth has the potential to take your business to the next level. All it requires is thinking outside the box and not being afraid to experiment. In the end, you can end up achieving great results with minimum time and money spent.
Below are five examples of growth hacking you can try out right now.
Focus on Quality Content
Simply having a blog section on your website will do wonders for the growth of your business. This is due to the fact that content marketing costs much less than traditional marketing, while generating as much as three times more leads.
Aside from this, posting regularly on your blog lets your visitors know you are an expert in your field. This, in turn, builds your website’s trustworthiness in Google’s eyes, increasing your search results ranking, and making your website visible to more people. It’s a virtuous circle that can have a great impact on your growth.
Make sure that the content is high in quality, though. Going in-depth with your articles and providing useful information about your niche will improve your SEO ranking and convert visitors to customers at the same time.
Leverage Reviews and Social Media
Anyone who’s ever bought anything online knows how important reviews can be. A quick and easy way to convert new customers is to show positive reviews and testimonials from your previous customers right on the pages of your website.
Also, consider using social media as a part of your advertising strategy. You can do this either by creating a profile for your business and regularly posting updates, or by signing up for Facebook and Google ads.
If you decide on the former, don’t be afraid to ask your followers for help. Adding a call to action to your social media updates will encourage your followers to share and promote your content, basically giving you free marketing space. Also, you can use smaller social media platforms such as The Dots or Profit.ly, where your competition is not likely to have a large presence.
Take Advantage of AI
We’ve already mentioned one of the possible uses of AI in hacking the growth of your company: using it to analyse which parts of your website attract the most visitors. However, the applications are limitless, from analysis and administration, to content generation and customer support.
One area where the use of AI can really benefit your business is customer support. Using software like chatbots can let a small business provide 24/7 support to their customers, without spending extra money on hiring support staff. This level of availability is sure to result in more conversions, and thus growth.
Give Away Free Upgrades (And Make Them Count)
It’s one thing to offer free signup bonuses or sales to prospective customers, but approaching free upgrades in a creative way can truly take your growth to the next level. A good example of a free upgrade scheme is Dropbox, where both the person referring and the new person signing up get upgraded storage space.
Make sure your free upgrades are a win-win company and they’ll become simply too good for potential customers to pass up.
Constantly Test and Tweak
All the techniques we described above are likely to have some influence on the growth of your business. However, this effect will vary on a case to case basis. If you only take one thing from this, let it be the fact that you need to constantly try out small-scale experiments like these. Test and tweak your marketing methods until you find the right ones to boost your growth.
Conclusion
Using the methods described above and remembering to focus on the big picture of growth is sure to take your business to the next level. Innovate, test, tweak, and in no time your business will grow faster than you ever thought possible.
Michael Deane is one of the editors of Qeedle, a small business magazine. When not blogging (or working), he can usually be spotted on the track, doing his laps, or with his nose deep in the latest John Grisham.
New Video: Ingham County Health Department – Issues on Housing
In this video for the Ingham County Health Department, we go into the economic and health issues concerning home ownership and rental properties.
For more information: http://hd.ingham.org/
Guest Post: No More Newsletters! Modern Methods to Keep Your Customers Updated On Your Business
With email open rates at 20% – 30%, businesses need to try more innovative ways to reach their customers. By using new advertising strategies and taking advantage of popular tech innovations, businesses are able to keep customers updated. Consider the following four ideas when trying to replace email marketing.
Use PPC Ads
When making the shift from using email newsletters to marketing through other avenues, businesses should use PPC or pay-per-click ads. This type of advertising allows businesses to purchase ads that will be listed within search engine results. When consumers search for relevant keywords, these PPC ads will show up alongside the regular search results. Businesses only pay for the percentage of ads that are clicked on.
Send SMS Updates
When it comes to SMS marketing, businesses can expect to see open rates as high as 98%. This incredibly high open rate means businesses are able to reach their audience much more effectively through text messages. With the help of SMS services for small business, companies are able to guarantee that more of their customers will open, read, and act on the information.
Use Social Media
With 3.49 billion people on social media, businesses that use social media marketing are able to expand their reach in ways they can’t with email marketing. By focusing their efforts on social media campaigns for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and similar platforms, businesses are able to actively engage with interested users. With regular posts, DM’s, and sponsored ads, businesses are able to target their audience through all forms of social media.
Create a Business App
Most brands today are hopping on the trend of developing an app. While customers have to download and use the app, most brands find that having a mobile app helps to improve brand recognition, build customer loyalty, foster customer engagement, and stand out from the competition. When customers might otherwise not open an email after receiving a notification, many businesses find that customers are more likely to open a brand’s app after receiving a notification.
While still used in some circles, email marketing isn’t quite as effective as it used to be in the past. By turning to more effective marketing techniques, businesses no longer have to worry about how to entice their customers to open their emails. With PPC ads, SMS marketing, social media campaigns, and the use of mobile apps, businesses can improve the way they connect with their customers.
Meghan Belnap is a freelance writer who enjoys spending time with her family. She loves being in the outdoors and exploring new opportunities whenever they arise. Meghan finds happiness in researching new topics that help to expand her horizons. You can often find her buried in a good book or out looking for an adventure. You can connect with her on Facebook right here and Twitter right here.