Social Media Series for Small Business – An In-depth Look at Facebook for Your Small Business

If you've been following our Social Media Series for Small Business, you know we've now talked about which Social Media sites are best for your business, what good posting strategies you should employ and how you can re-use content to enhance your overall social media strategy.

With this post, we want to start to dive a little deeper into each Social Media platform with a more detailed look at Facebook for your small business.

Click above to take a look at an enhanced version of our Social Media for Small Business Infographic.

As we discussed before, Facebook has the most content shared of the sites we are reviewing with more than 1.3 billion users and growing.

Of all the options we've looked at, Facebook offers a more personal approach for small businesses than some of the other platforms. Facebook is known for personal connections so it’s only natural for small businesses to make this their platform of choice.

But it does depend on where you can find your customers. If you are a B2C (Business-to-Consumer) operation, Facebook may be a really good option for you. With 1.3 billion users, it’s safe to say at least a good chunk of your consumers are on Facebook.

But it may also be a good option for B2B (Business-to-Business) if those businesses are small businesses.

Facebook offers the opportunity to connect, have conversations and get to know your followers.

We recommend posting 2 - 4 times per day, including shares, likes and comments. A good mix might look like this:

1. Post a link to a new blog post weekly or bi-weekly that is not a sales pitch, but offers valuable information to your customers and prospects
2. Regularly post your latest how-to videos from YouTube
3. Daily like, share or comment on an item of interest from one of your followers that will enhance the experience to your followers
4. Engage in strategic conversation around topics important to your business and your followers
5. Follow others who will enhance the experience from your page as well as customers and potential customers
6. Post testimonials from current customers
7. Enhance the experience with add-ins like Pinterest and Foursquare if they are right for your business
8. Increase opportunities and followers by purchasing Facebook advertising

It’s also important to remember what NOT to do on Facebook:

• Don’t get political or pontificate
• Don’t over post, share, like or comment
• Don’t post your personal life on your business Facebook page

The key to every good social media strategy is to have a plan, think it through. Your social media should tie into your overall organizational goals. Be sure to think like your customer and be genuine. Above all #BeStrategic.

We would love it if you would share some ways you have successfully (or not so successfully – because we can all learn from that too!) integrated Facebook into your small business social media plan.

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Social Media Series for Small Business: Can Old Content Still Benefit You?

Based on our earlier articles in this series, you should be investing a good bit of time focusing on posting to the best social media platforms for your business. You should have a good mix of your own content and shares, likes, pins, replies and retweets of other pertinent content.

Once you get into a rhythm here, you have one thing for sure. A lot of content! But don’t let it go to waste.

Make the most of previously developed content by re-posting, pinning, sharing and tweeting. With so many competing posts, you can and should garner a fresh audience for your re-posts of old content.

But when is the best time to re-post old content?

• About a week after you posted it initially.
•  Again on pertinent occasions – like Take Your Child to Work Day if your article has something to do with career building activities for children.
• Whenever you really need to post something and simply don’t have the time or passion to write something new!

You can even freshen up old articles, add new information and a new title and release them again.

We’re not saying that every article should be the same article by any means. But we want you to remember that you do have a toolkit to pull from when needed and it’s a good way to add to the content you are putting out there.

Have you added any of our suggestions to your social media strategy? We’d love to hear from you!

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Social Media Series for Small Business: Are You Integrating Good Posting Strategies into Your Social Media Plan?

To post or not to post, that is the question. With so many different social media options available to your small business now, how do you know how often to post and when you’ve gone over the top?

You want to strike the best balance in your social media postings so you are engaging your audience but not pushing them to the point of hiding your posts.

Let’s look again at our Social Media for Small Businesses Infographic for some tips to incorporate in your social media plan using the major social media sites.

As you’ll see, different social media sites require a different level of commitment. You shouldn’t, for instance, post on any other site the same amount you post on Twitter or pin on Pinterest. You will have followers, friends and circles running for the hills!

Let’s examine good netiquette for each site:

Facebook

For Facebook no more than 2 - 4 posts per day are recommended, but keep in mind that includes shares, likes and comments you make to others’ posts which will also show up on your wall and be seen by your followers. We post our own content a few times per week to our ProfessionalEdge Facebook page and then share, like and engage in conversation for the rest of the week.

Instagram

Instagram is more of a gallery of photos and video so posts per day don’t really matter, as long as whatever posts you make are relevant to your followers.

Google+

Regular and consistent (ideally daily like Facebook) posts and conversations are key to making the most of Google+. You may have a different audience here so you can re-post some of the things you have pinned and posted everywhere else.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is all about the conversation. 2 - 4 posts per week is a good measure, but it is more important to participate in conversations with group members and connections to make the most of this service.

Pinterest

Pin away to your heart’s content – it’s addicting! For your business, post as much as you can to your boards and then re-pin often so it’s fresh and seen by followers. One note here – be sure to use the description wisely as it can only enhance the story told by your picture. Share meaningful

Pinterest pins to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter pages as well (but count them as posts on those sites when you do!).

Twitter

Twitter has become a massive universe all its own and it never stops. It too can be addicting if you let it! Pre-schedule tweets for your business in advance to maximize your time investment. Using one of several tools available this can take a bit of time every few weeks, but it is well worth the effort not to have to remember to post specific topics each day. Then you can take a few minutes a couple times a day to browse through other’s tweets, retweet and engage in conversation.

YouTube

With YouTube, you should commit yourself to uploading a new video once a week or once a month (whatever you’re capable of) and stick to it. Remember, YouTube is owned by Google so posts by design increase your search engine standing. Be sure to include relevant meta tags to help searchers find your content.

The bottom line when you are posting to social media sites is to be consistent, but don’t overdo it. Don’t be that “friend” who likes and shares every post she comes across and then makes them public so you have to scroll over them to get to something worth reading. Or, worse yet, hide her content so you don’t have to navigate around it.

The goal is to come up with a strategy that works best for your business and meets your goals and objectives. Make true connections and enhance your success!

Let us know what you find works best for your business!

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Social Media for Small Business: Which Social Media Platform is Right for Me?

As a small business, you have many challenges you face every day. Not only is your time spread thin, your dollars are stretched tighter than pantyhose on Miss Piggy. And you still have to work on your business while you are working in your business.

Here is an important quote from Henry Ford.

“A man who stops advertising to save money

is like a man who stops a clock to save time.”

Even with everything else you have going on in your business, you must make the time and the investment to market your business. For small businesses, social media is an excellent way to continue to market your business without a large investment of money. But it does take time, and you have to start somewhere. So how do you navigate the many different social media opportunities available to you?

To help cut through some of the clutter, this will be the first in a series of articles on Social Media for Small Business. We will start with the top seven social media sites that are appropriate for small business – Facebook, Instagram, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube.

To aid in breaking down the overwhelming amount of information, we've created an infographic that illustrates the most useful information about each of these sites. Click on the graphic to open a larger version in a new window.

In this article, we will focus on how to determine which social media opportunities will work best for your business.

Let’s start with what each of these sites can do for you.

Facebook is a social networking site with 1.3 billion users and growing rapidly. Because of this high number of users, it is where the highest amount of content is shared. Facebook is a medium for businesses who want to connect with individuals or other small businesses. It’s a great place to post important information about your business and to have conversations with customers and potential customers about how you can meet their needs.

Instagram is a visual marketing site with 150 million users. It allows you to relate to consumers through pictures and video. Instagram is a medium used by photographers and videographers to showcase their talents and could also be a good way for small boutiques, fashion designers or similar small businesses to post photos of their merchandise.

Google+ is a social networking and identity site with 500 million users. Google+ is similar in a lot of ways to other social networking sites, so you may think it is redundant. But consider that is owned by Google, one of the largest search engines in the world, so every time you post on Google+ it increases your SEO (search engine optimization). Google+ also includes an authorship tool that associates web-content directly with its owner/author.

LinkedIn is a business networking site with 240 million users. It offers opportunities to network and connect with business associates and potential business customers. It is best used to make and cultivate connections for your business.

Pinterest is a visual discovery site with 70 million users, the majority of whom are female. This site allows you to post or pin pictures of things you like or want to share and to connect with others through their pins and posts. Pinterest is a tool to enhance your other social networking by sharing pins and posts on other sites. Small businesses who want to share photos of their merchandise, recipes or items in a portfolio should consider adding Pinterest to the mix.

Twitter is a micro blogging site with 600 million users. Each post is limited to 140 characters and can now also include a graphic or photo. Twitter is used primarily to share real-time information about what is going on in your business. It is a tool for on-the-spot communication about events, sales and other promotions and can also be used to share blog posts and other important information about your business. Twitter takes an investment of time overall, but there are many tools available to help you schedule and plan posts in advance. We’ll talk about them in more detail in a future article in this series.

YouTube is a video marketing tool with 1 billion unique users each month. It is owned by Google so it also helps increase SEO. YouTube provides and opportunity for businesses to share how-to’s, training and other informational videos about your business that can be added to posts in other mediums to increase visibility. Creating videos doesn't have to be expensive and can be done on most laptops or tablets now with only an investment of time. They should be considered as an add-on to any small business marketing strategy.

That is each of the top 7 social media opportunities in a nutshell. There are of course many other ways for businesses to use each of these sites. Please comment below to share how you are using these or other sites or how you want to incorporate them into your small business marketing strategy.

Please take a moment to share our blog with your colleagues and friends who you think may benefit. The next article will dive further into each of these sites and talk about good posting strategies to enhance your social media effectiveness.

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Social Media Series for Small Business – An In-depth Look at LinkedIn for Your Small Business

This week we are back to our Social Media Series for Small Business with an in depth look at LinkedIn.  To date, we've talked about which Social Media sites are best for your business and what good posting strategies you should be using, and we've taken an in depth look at Facebook for small business.

Let’s take another look at the enhanced version of our Social Media for Small Business Infographic.

As we reviewed before, LinkedIn is a business networking site with about 240 million users. The best use we've seen for LinkedIn is a networking tool for those out of work or looking to move in a different direction with their career.

But LinkedIn can also be a great tool for small business.

First, start by creating a LinkedIn Company Page to raise brand awareness and teach potential customers about your products and services.

Use your posts to attract followers to your company page. Followers are key to driving word of mouth, recommendations and referrals. The more quality followers you have, the more you will increase your reach and engagement.

You can start increasing followers by asking your employees to add your company page to their personal profiles. By doing this they are automatically following your company page and can like and comment on posts about your company. Do the same from your personal page and you've just expanded your company page’s reach significantly.

Next, ask your customers and potential customers to follow your Company Page – include links to connect on your website and other social media as well as in your email communications.

Increase your exposure by posting regularly. Share company news, industry articles and start key discussions about topics important to your customers and potential customers. We recommend 2 - 4 times per week; others may recommend daily. Like every other social media site, the key to success is to have a strategy and be consistent.

LinkedIn may take a bit more effort to cultivate, but the opportunities to expand your network may well be worth the investment of your time.

How are you using LinkedIn to benefit your small business?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Don’t Forget to Feed the Monster Before it Gets Hungry

Your small business is a being. It’s a living, breathing, moving, growing, changing being. It needs to be fed in order to keep it fat and happy.

Think about how you feel when you skip a meal or don’t eat right. Your stomach gurgles, your energy level is low and your mood changes.

This is the way many entrepreneurs are with their small businesses. They work every day on what will bring them revenue today or two weeks from now and forget to feed their business with leads and contacts that will help them be full further down the road. Occasionally, they’ll stop and send out a single post card or email or post something on Facebook, but there are large gaps in between and not a good balanced meal to sustain the company’s energy, so the results are not what they expect.

Imagine instead if you devoted a percentage of your time and a dedicated monthly budget to your business. The old adage of paying yourself first applies to your business as well. It doesn't have to be a huge amount of time, or a huge amount of money. It just has to be consistent. Start with an hour or two a week and $500 - $1,000 per month.  That doesn't sound like much time or money to invest in marketing, but it can go a long way. It’s much more about getting started, being strategic and keeping it going than about how much you can do today.

If you start with a small budget and you’re not a marketing guru, invest in a consultant to make the most of that budget for you. The right consultant can stretch that amount each month into a good mix of marketing and social media to get you the best reach for your investment.

Then, invest the limited time you have into communicating and providing information about your business to that consultant and then to networking as much as possible to cultivate current connections and add new ones. The consultant can take the information and turn it into blog posts, social media posts, email campaigns and other marketing and advertising to come up with the right mix to maximize your investment and always keep you in front of your target audience.

You also must have realistic expectations. With a small investment of time and money, you won’t see huge results immediately. So don’t give up after a month with no immediate results! With consistency, you will start seeing your business and your brand awareness increase. Over time, you will solidify your brand and your network will grow. So as you have new products or services to offer down the road, your monster will be full of new prospects and potential customers to sustain your business.

Is your monster being fed a good meal consistently or is that a gurgle you hear?

__ Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Take Time to Pay Attention to the Simpler Things

Last week, I read a blog that made me take a break from all of the technology and contracts and stress of life and stop to think about the simpler things.

It was about how to give your 2014 kids a 1970s summer.  It made me laugh. In fact I’m still laughing. And it brought back many wonderful memories of leaving the house at 7:00 in the morning and not coming back until after playing hide and seek at dusk. Riding bikes. Bouncing from house to house and slapping together sandwiches at whoever’s house we were at when we got hungry. Lemonade and Kool-Aid stands. Cartwheels and Red Rover on the front lawn. Playing in the sprinklers. And laughter. So. Much. Laughter. Thank you Melissa Fenton and @_MommyPage for the fabulous flash back.

We thought it would be fun to take a look at what was happening with business and technology back in the 1970s too. Here are just a few kind of important things that happened during that decade:

• Southwest Airlines made its first flight in June 1971
• Federal Express was founded in 1971
• The earliest floppy disks were invented at IBM; they were 8 inches wide and became commercially available in 1971
• The first e-mail transmission took place in 1971
• The first voicemail system, known as the Speech Filing System (SFS), was invented by Stephen J. Boies in 1973
• On April 3, 1973, the first cell phone call was transmitted
• Microsoft was founded on April 4, 1975
• Apple was founded April 1, 1976
• Oracle was founded in 1977
• The microprocessor, spreadsheets and the C programming language were invented
• Pocket calculators and the Sony Walkman were built
• Microwave ovens and VCRs became commercially available
• In 1979 e-commerce was invented

Clearly, the 1970s saw many inventions and thriving entrepreneurship. Technology grew by leaps and bounds. And it has never stopped.

Hmmm. Any correlation between that and the “forced smile-inducing, uber planned and supervised, over-the-top summer life experiences” parents are providing these days?

Technology is an amazing thing. It’s what allows us to run our business when we live in different places and our customers are in other different places. That’s not something that could have happened in the 1970s and not something to be taken for granted.

But, this article reminded me to take more moments to remember the simpler things and break the ‘rules’ more.

In fact I've just used an app to put that on my To Do list in the cloud so it will trickle down to all of my various technology devices. J

How do you take time to remember the simpler things?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Entrepreneurs: Celebrate the small victories, learn from the missteps, and don’t forget to sing in the mud

Running a small business can be like riding the world’s craziest roller coaster. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, big climbs and long drops. But there are three simple lessons that we encourage you to implement each day to make the ride much easier.

Celebrate the small victories.

No matter what you are going through today, there will be victories. Maybe you gained a new customer or a great testimonial from a happy client. Maybe you reached a milestone anniversary or maybe you just increased your followers on Twitter. Whatever the victories, be sure to celebrate them every day. Celebrating the small victories helps you concentrate on the positive things happening in your business and not dwell on the challenges. If you, as the business leader, focus on the positives, that will resonate throughout your team and to your customers. At the end of each day, make a list of the victories and celebrate them.

Learn from the missteps.

There will be missteps. You will make mistakes in business. Thomas Edison famously said “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” 

As long as you learn from the missteps you are moving forward. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things. If they become missteps, you are learning and progressing. Don’t dwell on the misstep, dwell on what you learned from it and move on.

Sing in the mud.

Along with the wild roller coaster ride there will be times that you feel overwhelmed. There may be staffing issues or cash flow challenges or clients who may not be the best fit for your company. You may seemingly have more work to do than hours in the day.

Admiral William H. McRaven, United States Navy Admiral and Commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command delivered the 2014 commencement address at the University of Texas at Austin. His speech included ten important life lessons he learned in SEAL training. They are all applicable, but one stood out as very appropriate for entrepreneurs who are feeling overwhelmed “If you want to change the world, start singing when you’re up to your neck in mud.” Please click here to watch that section of his address, or click here to watch the full speech – you will be glad you did.

Being an entrepreneur can be overwhelming and can sometimes feel like it is taking you on a crazier ride than you expected. These three simple steps will help you stay focused on the positives, keep learning the ways that won’t work until you find those that do, and keep singing even when you feel overcome.

What important life lessons can you share with your fellow entrepreneurs?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Reflections on Nine Years as Small Business Entrepreneurs

It’s crazy to think that it has been nine years this month since we took the leap of faith from being full time employed workers to becoming small business entrepreneurs.

Our story isn't a sexy ‘Facebook is going to buy us one day’ tale, or even a ‘We have a brilliant idea let’s build it in our garage’ kind of legend. Instead it’s a culmination of a lot of life happening, a long-time dream to work together and a ‘We’re done with the status quo’ experiment.

And we've never looked back.

Entrepreneurship is truly an amazing thing. It offers flexibility, new ventures and opportunities that can be limited when working for others. There are challenges to be sure, but you learn to go with the flow and adapt as necessary. For example, when funding challenges plagued our core industry, we adapted by changing our name, rebranding and expanding our core target to include small business. We still do a lot of work with the workforce industry where we got our start, but small business has been a natural and welcomed extension.

The other wonderful thing is there hasn't been a ‘typical day at the office’ for us. We've worked with so many different customers – from a telecommunications technology company, to a custom drilling company, to a medical coding solopreneur, to a simulation and training start-up, to many workforce-related vendors, organizations and associations across the country. And our list of tasks goes well beyond marketing, graphic design and event planning where we started and now includes other things as diverse as contract management, human resources management, logistics, magazine editors, trade show planning, office design, virtual conferences and much more.

Technology has been our best friend and has allowed us to live in different places and have customers in other different places. And we've connected with so many people we would never have met otherwise.

Most of all we are thankful - to our families and fur babies who have supported us every step of the way, and to all of you who have honored us by becoming our customers and friends and those we have yet to meet.  

We are looking forward to celebrating many more anniversaries with you.

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Kim Luedke and Kerry Brooks are Co-owners of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing, event planning and other support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Learn more at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com.

Ten tips to keep your website fresh

You’ve heard us say that your website is one of your front doors, especially if you are an online or remote business. It should be clean, free of cobwebs, with a fresh coat of paint, and oh so welcoming.

Here are ten simple tips to help you keep your website fresh:

Keep the look and feel current

The look and feel of your website (and other company collateral and social media sites) is as important as the clothes you wear. It is the eye-catching part of your brand and it is important that it represents your company today, not 5 years ago. It doesn’t take a total rewrite of your website to update the look and feel. It can be as simple as a new header, some new pictures, or a new color scheme. Don’t let your look and feel get stale or that’s the impression customers and potential customers will receive.

Change content often – it’s not that hard!

You will often hear the mantra “Content is King!” and it’s the absolute truth. The content on your website should change often and there are many different ways to do that. Some companies nowadays use a blog or Facebook page in lieu of a website. That is one way to assure that your content is always current – so long as you are always posting new content. But if you are using a traditional website, you can easily update content. We talk about several ways to do this below.

Access is everything

It is critical that people know how to stay connected with your business. Be sure that access to you is prominent on the home page and throughout your site. Update icons and links as you add new social mediums. Don’t make people search to figure out how to keep in touch.

Tell people the good stuff going on

One of the easiest ways to keep content up-to-date is to include current information about your sales, new customers, new staff, new products, improvements to old products, etc. Include a quick summary on your home page and allow visitors to drill down to get more information.

Talk about your team

One of your greatest assets is your team and you should showcase your team members as often as possible. This serves two purposes – let’s your customers learn more about your team, and is a morale booster. If you are just a small shop and showcasing would equal tooting your own horn, include information about your partners, board members, star vendors, etc. They are all a part of your team!

Use your current customers to help you get new customers

There is nothing better than a customer testimonial to help tell your story. Look how Amazon.com uses customer reviews to help sell each and every product in their massive arsenal. Request testimonials from everyone and post them on your website!

Add video to spark interest

Video captures attention – it’s something unique and quick that can tell your story. Add video to your website – particularly on the home page. But don’t have it play automatically! That can be a huge turn off to your visitors.

Add promotions or events

Be sure to update your website with every promotion and event you hold. Don’t forget to capitalize on national events like Small Business Saturday so you can leverage their marketing!

Add a Twitter or RSS feed 

You can add some simple code to your website that will continue working for you without any additional work on your part. Add a simple Twitter feed or RSS list and it will do the updating for you!

Make it a priority!

The most important thing to remember is, even though it seems like a daunting task, if you make updating your website a priority you can make it happen in just a few minutes each week. So make it a priority! Add it to your task list!

These simple tips can help you keep your website fresh and inviting so people will want to continue to visit through that door.

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Visit the ProfessionalEdge website at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com, email info@gettheprofessionaledge.com, follow them on Twitter @profedge, or like their Facebook page.

What will you learn this year?

Lifelong learning is no longer just a buzz phrase like it was a few years ago. It is a fundamental requirement in life. Constant and dramatic changes to technology make it imperative, especially in business, that we are always learning and growing, keeping up with new ideas and new ways to do things better and more efficiently.

Each year we should be learning new software, new tricks and avenues for social media, new ways to expand our business outreach for less, new ways to incorporate technology into our lives, and so much more.

Among other things, in 2012 we continued to learn how to best implement social media into our own business and for our customers, we started this blog as a new way of sharing information with our target audience and continuing the conversation with them, we increased our Twitter use and concentrated on adding and communicating with new followers in our target markets, and we learned how to create and implement a new solution for a client when the only options available cost thousands of dollars and were less than efficient.

I personally continue to learn and read and grow so I can be a better wife, parent, daughter, sister, friend, and business owner. 2013 already promises to bring exciting new learning opportunities – both professionally and personally.

Let’s get the conversation going! Will you share one thing you plan to learn in the coming year?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Visit the ProfessionalEdge website at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com, email info@gettheprofessionaledge.com, follow them on Twitter @profedge, or like their Facebook page.

Is your exhibit booth approachable?

We are definitely in conference and trade show season, and there are many things to consider when you choose to invest good money into exhibiting at a conference.  Last week we asked when it was time to consider a professional exhibit designer; this week we will go further into not only the design of your exhibit booth, but also whether or not the booth is approachable.  Obviously the number one goal of exhibiting is to reach as many qualified prospects as possible and get your information into their hands. Your exhibit booth plays a major role in this process, so let’s begin by taking a look at the design. 

1.       Does your booth design invite people in or shut them out?  A typical 8 x 10 exhibit booth usually includes one table.  Where do you put it?  If it is at the side of the booth, attendees can walk in and around the space.  If it is out in front of the booth, the message is “you belong on that side of the table, not in the booth”.  That may still work if your table is the focal point, but if you want people to enter the space for a conversation, to view your materials or experience a demonstration, open it up!

2.   Entertain a little.  Remember that conference attendees’ days are long too.  They are in workshops, networking groups, meeting bosses for dinner, etc., and an exhibit hall may just appear as a blur of lights, graphics, and never-ending sales pitches.  You may need to work a little more to get their attention.  Have fun and/or useful promotional items.  If it is appropriate, dress in a costume or play some music to stand out from other vendors.  Have a larger item drawing or an important announcement, and build some buzz ahead of time so attendees will come back for that moment.

3.       The “make or break” component to your exhibit booth is the person or people staffing it.  How many times do you see a person slouched in a chair behind a book, newspaper, a smartphone, or computer, or talking on the phone in an exhibit booth?  The message here is “I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to talk to you, don’t bother me.  Exhibiting is often extremely expensive, especially when factoring in travel costs.  Make sure the person who is the face of your company at a tradeshow is friendly, engaging, knowledgeable, and willing. Otherwise you are throwing money down the drain, and giving a very poor impression of your company.

Next time you exhibit, step out of the booth and see it from the attendee’s standpoint.  And ask yourself “How approachable is my exhibit booth? “

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Kim Luedke is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Visit the ProfessionalEdge website at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com, email info@gettheprofessionaledge.com, follow them on Twitter @profedge, or like their Facebook page.

Are you ready for Small Business Saturday?

Tucked neatly between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is a very important shopping day for small businesses called Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday was started by American Express in 2010 to encourage shoppers to support small businesses when they are making their holiday purchases the weekend after Thanksgiving, which is notoriously one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year in the U.S. This year, Small Business Saturday falls on November 24^th. Are you ready?

If you are a small business merchant here are some things you can do to get ready.

1.       Advertise! – If you haven’t started already, start now promoting Small Business Saturday. Visit the Small Business Saturday Promote Your Small Business page for free tools, ideas, and success stories.  Be sure to post signs in your business, send emails, and post on your social media sites. This site offers many tools to help you and even offers free advertising to qualified businesses.

2.       Offer promotions! – Use this opportunity to offer a special discount or promotion to those who support you on Small Business Saturday. Think about a special that gets people in early, such as a giveaway or extra discount to the first 500 visitors. Think about offering something special like a craft or story time for the kids while mom and dad are shopping!

3.       Combine with other opportunities! – capitalize on this special day with other opportunities, like inviting special guests into the store, holding a ribbon cutting  ceremony, combining with an open house, or launching a new product. All of this can garner additional buzz for a day that’s already being promoted nationwide.

4.       Keep them coming back! – Be sure to have adequate staff to handle the rush of the day and of course put your best customer service faces on. Make the experience welcoming and find a way to get their email or get them to like or follow your social media sites so you can add them to future marketing opportunities. Consider what an opportunity you have for next year if you capture their address. You can send them a personal invitation to your next Small Business Saturday!

If you are a shopper instead of a merchant, be sure to support your local small businesses on November 24^th! Visit the Shop Small Facebook page to learn more about how you can support small businesses.

Let us know how you’ll be participating in Small Business Saturday this year.

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Visit the ProfessionalEdge website at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com, email info@gettheprofessionaledge.com, follow them on Twitter @profedge, or like their Facebook page.

 

Case Studies: Testimonials on Steroids

Recently, we posted a blog about how customer testimonials are so important for your business. You should be requesting feedback and testimonials after every customer transaction. But there is so much more you can do with your positive testimonials. Case studies are like testimonials on steroids. They take a simple recommendation or quote and dig deeper to provide you with a full customer story. Case studies are an excellent addition to your marketing strategy.

For marketing purposes, you can approach case studies in two ways – either a more in-depth study of one customer experience, or an overview of multiple customer experiences with a particular product or service.

Let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take to create your case study. 

1.     Identify the challenge  – A case study should be built around what problem or challenge you have solved for your customer(s). So the first step is to identify which problems your products and/or services solve.

2.     Identify the customer(s) – Once you’ve identified a problem, think about your customers and identify one or more you know would be willing to tell people how you have solved the problem for them.

3.     Identify the solution – A case study tells a story and once you’ve identified the problem, you should also identify the solution. What did your company do to solve the problem or challenge? Be specific – think about all the ways your company helped, like staff interactions, training, support, installations, products, etc.

4.     Interview the customer(s) – Ask your customer(s) specific questions about their experience.  Ask for more than you need and get as much detail as possible so you can choose what is best to include in your case study. Open ended questions will provide more detail. Some people prefer to receive questions and provide answers in writing, which is helpful to you as you write and use their quotes.

5.     Draft your case study – Be sure to include the challenge, solution, and specifics and be very sure to include some of the information as verbatim quotes with proper credit given. Tell a story and let the story sell your product or service. Don’t make it a sales pitch.

6.     Secure buy-in – Have your customer(s) review and make changes to the draft as necessary – you want their buy-in. It would be a shame to write a great case study with testimonials from a customer and then have them angry at you for not letting them sign off!

7.     Incorporate it into your strategy – Be sure to incorporate use of your case study into your overall marketing strategy so it is a complement to your other marketing efforts and will garner the greatest impact. Here are some ideas to consider:

a.       Develop a printed version for use at trade shows and in new customer packets

b.      Post and talk about it on your website and other social media sites

c.       Include it as a blog post on your blog and other industry sites

d.      Repurpose it into an article for publication in industry publications

e.      Send it to key customers who have purchased before to remind them how you can solve their problems too

f.        Send to key stakeholders as appropriate, like potential funders, legislators, board members, etc.

g.       Post the quotes on your testimonial pages online and as use them in other marketing collateral

h.      Don’t forget to track and analyze every use so you know what works best for next time

8.     Consider repurposing it into a video – Videos can add a whole new perspective to things. If your customer is willing, video tape the interview and cut it into a creative video that can be posted to YouTube, on your web site, and other places. If the impact of the written story is significant, just imagine how much stronger it will be if your potentials and stakeholders hear your customer speak about how you solved their problem.

9.     Thank your customer – Be sure to thank your customer, share the finished product with them, and tell them about all the marketing exposure it harvested. Remember, this is also a marketing opportunity and exposure for them!

10.  Start on the next one! – Don’t stop after just one. Case studies should become a major and ongoing part of your marketing efforts. Done right, they can provide a significant impact.

What are some ways that you’ve incorporated case studies into your marketing strategy?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff. Visit the ProfessionalEdge website at www.gettheprofessionaledge.com, email info@gettheprofessionaledge.com, follow them on Twitter @profedge, or like their Facebook page.

Getting the Most from Your Trade Show Investment

Making the decision to exhibit at an industry trade show is not an easy one. The costs are many, including staff time, travel expenses, booth furnishings, booth space, marketing, giveaways, etc. But they are still one of the best ways to begin a relationship with new prospects and solidify relationships with existing or previous customers. So, if you make the decision to attend, make the decision to maximize your investment opportunity.

Here are some tips to help you maximize your impact: 

1.    Plan ahead – If you book your booth early you will be able to choose the best location and use the pre-show time for pre-marketing activities. There are often early registration discounts as well.

2.    Pre-marketing – Once you have registered, develop a marketing schedule that begins prior to the show.

a.    Add it to your web site

b.    Get the pre-attendee list and send early invitation post cards or emails.

c.    Touch base with leads you have met at that show in the past and schedule appointments to meet with them again and show them your latest products or services.

d.    Create buzz – trade shows are a great place to launch new products, or preview exciting things to come. Use social media during the last couple weeks prior to the event to continue the buzz, and announce new products and in-show giveaway opportunities.

e.    Maximize your opportunity – enter for awards, take advantage of opportunities to write white papers or articles pre-show that talk about your message, and apply to sit in on panels that relate to your product or service. Consider sponsorship opportunities carefully to strategically coordinate with all of your other plans and increase your investment return.

3.    Develop a great booth atmosphere – no matter the size of your booth, you can create an atmosphere that is inviting and exciting enough for people to visit you.

a.    For smaller booths, use popup banners to create a story and invite people into your booth. For larger booths decide whether purchasing your own display system or renting and having a booth rental company take care of the shipping, setup, and tear down makes more sense.

b.    Really think about the message you need to convey, who is your target market for this specific event, and how best to grab their attention amidst all the other booths and activities that are taking place in their world during the conference.

c.    Use promotional items and other giveaways strategically – don’t just throw some pens on the table; think about items that will best convey your message and won’t end up in the circular file.

d.    Plan your booth layout to be inviting – you need attendees to want to stop and talk to you, not just walk by.

4.    Maximize your time on-site – You’ve set the stage, now you must follow through.

a.    Choose the best exhibit staff – much better to have someone knowledgeable and engaging in your booth than someone who just wants to sit there and watch people walk by and maybe pick up a piece of literature. (We could write a whole article on this topic alone.)

                                          i.    Have booth staff stand whenever clients and potential clients are in the area.

                                         ii.    Don’t eat in your booth.

                                        iii.    Always have someone staffing your booth; you never know when the next big client will decide to leave a workshop early to quietly peruse the exhibit hall. For smaller booths with less staff, if you must leave your booth empty, think strategically about how you can still offer information or an invitation to come back. For example, leave a sign to tell folks you had to step away to join a panel discussion about xyz – invite them to come to Conference Room B to join in the discussion or meet you back at your booth at 1:00 to hear more about how they can put this into practice in their organization. Be sure to leave your business cards so they can contact you for more information if they can’t make it back to the hall.

b.    Solidify your brand every step of the way – think strategically about staff uniforms, lanyards, giveaways, messaging, the picture your booth portrays, and customer service with every interaction. In many cases this will be a potential client’s first impression; make it last!

c.    Think of creative and innovative ways that mean something to attendees to get them to give you their business card or contact information. For large shows, use lead retrieval systems available through the conference. Offer to send a free publication that is coming out soon or to add them to a future drawing opportunity. Use social media to your advantage – “like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to be entered to win.”

d.    Take advantage of every opportunity to meet with existing customers while you are in the same location. Schedule breakfast and dinner meetings, meet for a drink, or meet in the airport before a flight. Take advantage of your travel dollars and use them wisely. Schedule appointments with others who may not be attending the show while you are in the local area.

5.    Follow it through – You’ve done all this work leading up to and during the show and you’re exhausted. But your job has only just begun! You must take every advantage to follow up with everyone you connected with during the event. Don’t forget those who attended your workshop and those you met with outside the booth, even for a casual conversation. Use multiple opportunities to touch base and stay in touch.

a.    Send a hand written note within a week of the event.

b.    Connect on social media and schedule several follow up postings after the event.

c.    Send a follow up email.

d.    Schedule face to face meetings, one-on-one webinars, and/or phone calls with the highest prospects.

e.    Don’t forget to do everything you said you would.

The bottom line is that conference or trade show exhibit opportunities are a big and expensive endeavor. They must be considered as part of your overall strategic plan for marketing and that strategy must be carried through every step of the way. Done right with every opportunity maximized, these occasions can offer an excellent return on your investment.

Do you ever attend trade shows? What are some things that have worked well for you?

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Kerry Brooks is Co-owner of ProfessionalEdge Associates, offering a wide range of marketing and support services to businesses that want to increase their success, but aren't in a position to add to their staff.