How To Restore A Business Reputation

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Reputation Management|How To Restore A Business ReputationNo business, no matter how large, small or seemingly impenetrable, is free from the benefits or disadvantages of having a good or bad reputation. It can take only one small social media scandal for your profits to dip. Just look how the reason release of the Samsung Galaxy Fold was handled. Sending out test units to online reviewers, many content creators found that the foldable screen could easily break when pulling off a seeming screen protector. This was not told to said creators ahead of time, and so they quite understandably fell into that trap.

From then on, the narrative regarding said phones was that they were a shoddy product, they didn’t work, and that folding phones were a gimmick. Samsung are now on the back foot, are redesigning elements of those models, and will need to re-release them. The business reputation has been somewhat tarnished, and stock value dipped. Even for a company as massive as Samsung, negative perceptions and narrative can stop their expected yearly results dead in their tracks.

But how do you restore a business reputation? Sure, we know it can be difficult to achieve. But is it possible? We would say yes. We’d also like to explore why:

Control The Narrative

It can sometimes be that the narrative gets out of hand when we are the new target among annoyed consumers. This can, unfortunately, lead to things getting blown out of proportion. Any attempt to publicly deflect that narrative, outside of clear statements as we’ll explain below, can seem like an aggressive and overly-defensive stance. This is where it can be important to take a more subtle approach to shift the narrative back in your favor.

Public relations firms continually strive to restore consumer faith in businesses. It happens all the time. Rewarding loyal customers with extra promotions, offering customers that might have left or cancelled their service with ideal return offers, and taking excess pride in the practices your company has gotten write can often let the passage of time heal the issues that were caused in the first place. This can be freeing for every firm.

On top of that, subtle, yet informative marketing could be used to restore your company’s name in the public consciousness. Services such as Fat Joe, which operate as professional SEO firms, can help you wrap your business name within informative content through their excellent blogger outreach. Not only this, but their ability to raise the rankings of search results can help your firm avoid dying out due to a lack of attention, perhaps during a time when a truly aggressive marketing strategy might need to take a breather.

Understand Goodwill Is Valuable

Goodwill is an evasive word and concept. We can’t gift goodwill back to our shareholders. We can’t use it to pay the electric bill, or pay our staff wages. But without goodwill, the glue that ties a business to its audience washes away. It’s very important to consider this as a vital resource. Connect with your customers, listen to them, interact with them, and treat them as more than just people to bat away with a simple defensive statement.

If you can be clear, concise and direct regarding your strategy, honest about what happened and how things were caused, and why this will never happen again, you can get on top of the issue immediately. Some might even respect you more. You can be certain that your goodwill shall not fade as a result. And that’s extremely important to consider and manage.

Fix The Issues

We are living in the age of social media, where slights and issues aren’t swept under the rug. While we are used to political scandals often being forgotten about as the next one comes along, business injuries aren’t as fortunate to enjoy something like that. And that’s a good thing.

Jumping immediately to fix the issues should there be a legitimate concern is essential to helping you restore your name. Otherwise, this can be a black cloud that hangs over you, particularly if you fail to address it. Restoring a business reputation often means just that, restoration. For example, it could be that your product is defunct. Offering a full refund to any proven purchase can help you overcome the damage. However, taking another step forward and offering up to 50% off another purchase at your store can help people see this as less than a waste of time. It can also help you avoid a very costly class action lawsuit by offering the appropriate reparations immediately.

You gain nothing by ignoring the issues, but potentially plenty of goodwill by fixing them.

Rebrand

Sometimes, a negative business reputation can be so bad, you need to rebrand your operations. This might sound like a dark tactic, but it is often used in many industries. Even after fixing the issues and remaining forward-facing about the troubles you face, sometimes it’s not enough.

Starting again with a new business name, a new logo and aesthetic can be important. Of course, you cannot expect to hide your business past – but you might be able to redefine it. Consider how Dominoes once operated in the late 2000s. After many widespread reports that their US Pizza chains were terrible, and that the recipe tasted awful, they embarked on a major rebrand campaign. Of course, they weren’t shy about it and didn’t change their name, but after revolutionizing every recipe on their menu, for all intents and purposes they were a new firm with a new outlook.

You might be able to practice the same idea. Both front-facing marketing promotions such as these or hidden rebrands to help your firm gain some room to breathe, a rebrand might be just the thing you and your business needs to start again with a strong pace.

With this advice, we hope you’re much better able to shake off or restore a bad business reputation. This can be hard to do, but with enough dedication and a cohesive mindset, you can pull it off. Good luck!

4 Tips for Running a Home-Based Business from a Rented Apartment

/in /by

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Home-Based Business|4 Tips for Running a Home-Based Business from a Rented ApartmentYou hear of home-based businesses all the time and, of course, you usually don’t think of them being run from a rented apartment. If you are honest, you think of a home that has a spare room in which to set up shop and perhaps even a nice area where you can meet and greet customers or clients if the need should arise.

Actually, a huge number of home-based businesses are run from rented apartments, but there are a few challenges that are a bit different than what you’d experience when running a business from a home you own. If you are considering going into business for yourself from home in an apartment, here are some tips you might otherwise overlook.

1. Check Zoning Codes in Your Area

Zoning codes are of vital importance if you are going to operate a business. To do it right, you’ll want to register it as a business, but some areas of the country are zoned for residential only. You’ll want to check this out before you take another step.

2. Talk to Your Landlord

If you can’t see anything in your lease that would prohibit you from running a home-based business, then it’s probably safe to assume that it should not be a problem. This just may be the case but if you are going to be seeing a lot of foot traffic, so it’s a good idea to get the property manager’s approval before advertising you are “Open for Business.”

3. Licenses and Insurance

This is something else many apartment dwellers don’t think of when running a business from home. You will want to get the appropriate business licenses and occupational permits if required in your city/county. Also, you should get the best renters insurance coverage you can find. When seeking a renters insurance quote, ask about the various kinds of coverage. For example, you’ll probably need liability if anyone is going to come to your ‘place of business’ and you’ll want contents insurance because of theft and loss due to natural disasters or fire. Obviously the amount of coverage you purchase will have an impact on renters insurance cost, but by comparing renters insurance online you will be able to find the most inclusive policy for the lowest amount of money.

4. Keep Work and Play Separate

Finally, even though you might be limited on space, always keep work areas and living areas separate if at all possible. Some people move their television and games systems to their bedroom and use the front room as their office space – or vice versa. It really isn’t quite that important how you do it, as long as you set aside an area to work so that when you are working you are in the right frame of mind.

It really isn’t that much different than setting up a home-based business in a family home, but the major differences will be that you have a landlord involved when you are renting. If you get permission to work from your apartment, it can be a stepping stone to bigger and better things.

How to Formulate a Killer Marketing Strategy

/in /by

StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Marketing Strategy|How to Formulate a Killer Marketing StrategyMarketing is one of the most important aspects of any business; if you aren’t marketing as effectively as you can, your business isn’t going to be performing as well as it should. It’s easy enough to understand the link between good marketing and increased sales, but many business owners are getting by with mediocre marketing and don’t even realize it.

If you think that there is even a slight chance that your business could be performing better, you should explore whether a rethink of your marketing strategy might be the answer. Here are some simple tips to help you devise effective marketing strategies every time.

Make it Personal

Personalization has been a growing trend in marketing for some time now. Personalization didn’t really come into its own until social media sites like Facebook started to offer personalized advertising that used the names and photos of a user and their friends in ads that appear on the site.

You don’t need to make your marketing quite this personal, but you should avoid making it entirely impersonal. You want to give your audience marketing content that they can relate to on some level. Your marketing should demonstrate to your customers that you understand who they are and what they like. The greater the emotional connection you can create, the more effective your marketing would be.

Use Specialists

There are many circumstances in which it makes more sense, both practically and financially, to use an outside marketing specialist to help you manage your marketing. There’s nothing wrong with calling in outside help, and as long as you choose the right marketer to partner with, your marketing should still feel personal.

You might think that your business niche is too small to attract specialist marketers, but you would be amazed at the marketing specialties that now exist. For example, if you run a law firm and don’t have anyone on staff with experience in marketing, you could turn to someone like just legal marketing, who specialize in advertising law firms online.

Get All Your Employees Involved

The most effective marketing campaigns are those that are able to communicate a clear message to their audience across a variety of mediums. Try and formulate your campaign around a simple message that will resonate with your audience. Make sure that all of your employees understand the marketing campaign you are trying to launch.

It is particularly important that your frontline workers, any who have interactions with customers, understand the principles behind your latest marketing drive. They can then reinforce the message and the ethos of your marketing campaign. It will also highlight the cohesiveness of your business to any outside observers.

Formulating a killer marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a serious challenge. It isn’t easy to put together an effective marketing campaign, but any business owner worth their salt needs to be able to differentiate between a good campaign and a bad one. The above tips will help you to produce good campaigns every time.

3 Tips for Taking Your Small Business to the Next Level

/in /by

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Small Business |3 Tips for Taking Your Small Business to the Next LevelSmall businesses today have a lot of obstacles that they need to be able to overcome. The world of business has always been ruthless and punishing to those that aren’t prepared for it. However, even the smallest of businesses have the potential to grow into titans, as long as they play the game correctly. Making the right moves isn’t easy, and even if you do everything right, it doesn’t mean you will necessarily achieve your goals.

However, there are a number of things you can do to give your business the best chance possible of surviving in the long term. Here are just some of the ways that you can take your business to the next level and ensure that you are able to keep growing it long into the future.

Have a Plan

When you first launch your business, you will hopefully have a business plan. This plan will lay out exactly what you plan to do with your business, as well as how it will operate in general. Business plans also contain lots of projections for the future.

As time goes on, you will learn whether those projections turn out to be accurate or not. You should update your business plan regularly and ensure that your plans for the future take into account everything that has come before.

Keep Your Expenses Down

Every business has expenses; they are often unavoidable and there’s not a lot you can do about them. However, while you will find it impossible to eliminate many of your expenses, there are plenty of things you can do to keep those expenses as low as you possibly can. Saving even small amounts of money can ultimately amount to some very considerable savings in the long run.

Any products or services that your business uses on a regular basis can potentially be targeted for savings. In some cases, making savings in key areas is associated with a dramatic boost to your overall efficiency. For example, switching to a different payment processor can reduce the cost of each transaction, a small increase on each transaction can be a significant boost over the year.

Make sure to check for online reviews of any processor you consider, stick to reviews that go into some detail about the processor you are considering. This review of BlueSnap by Merchant Maverick is a good example.

Put the Customer First

It doesn’t matter what your job is, what industry you work in or what your long-term goals are. You will have your best chance of success when you are putting special focus on the customer experience. In today’s world, customers always have other options; you need to make them choose your business because you are offering something that your competitors aren’t.

You don’t need a huge business with fully-staffed departments to improve your customer experience. You just need to make sure that you are getting the right feedback from your customers.

If you are at the helm of a small business, you will no doubt have your eyes set on higher goals. Learning to prioritize the right aspects of your business is the key to reaching those higher goals.

Why SEO Needs to be at the Heart of Your Corporate Strategy

/in /by

StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |SEO|Why SEO Needs to be at the Heart of Your Corporate StrategyBy now, you’ve heard of SEO. Any business that has made a serious effort at launching their own website will either know what SEO is or, hopefully, have hired someone who understands (ask your web designer).

But is SEO just another corporate buzzword, or is it really as important as everyone makes out? The answer is an emphatic yes – SEO is very important to any business.

Web Searches are the Most Common Driver of Internet Traffic

Most internet traffic today is generated by search engines. Without them, we would be completely lost online. Imagine a world where you can only access websites if you know their exact URL. The world of marketing would be very different for one thing; you would have to publicise your web address to consumers.

You can’t afford to be missing out on the traffic that search engines can bring to your site. SEO will bring your website towards the top of those results pages. The vast majority of traffic goes to the first few websites on that list and the top three results will take around 90% of the traffic. SEO is how you climb the ladder.

Build Trust and Credibility

Google’s algorithms have become vastly more sophisticated than they once were and they are now adept at sorting out legitimate content, like this article, from a page that is created purely to artificially boost SEO. There was a time where you could literally just spam a link on otherwise blank web pages and send your SEO through the roof.

Fortunately, search engine providers are all now able to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate content. This means that a website’s SEO score gives us a proxy for measuring trust. Also, when other trustworthy websites link to your website, you will gain a nice SEO boost.

Local SEO Drives Footfall

Working with an seo agency that also handles local SEO can give your brick and mortar business a significant boost in footfall. SEO isn’t just about reaching out into the cold vast expanse of the internet; it can also benefit your business offline as well.

When consumers want to find a particular product or type of business, the vast majority of them will begin by searching for what they need on their smartphone. If your business is one of the names that they see and you are near to them, they are more likely to pay you a visit.

It’s Constantly Changing

You need someone to monitor and regularly update your SEO if you are to be effective. The landscape is constantly changing as Google’s algorithms evolve. See the adpocalypse for an example of how an update by Google can have far-reaching consequences. If you let your SEO practices slip behind then your website and your business will both suffer.

SEO is far too important to be an afterthought when you are devising a corporate strategy. Without SEO, your website will be all but invisible to most internet users. That should be reason enough to convince you it is worth investing in.