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Marketing Advice for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Marketing Advice for Your Business

You may have the best product or service in the world, but if you do not know how you market it, you will not be able to sell it. What this means is that your competitor with an inferior product can potentially make far more sales than you if they have the marketing wherewithal you lack. It may seem easy, post a few adverts on social media, the product will sell itself. You need to understand now that this is not going to work. You need a fully thought out marketing strategy and the ability to maintain it into the future. So here are some ideas to get you started.

Your website

You need to invest in your website. It has to be fully functioning, quick loading, and work in all browsers and devices, as a prerequisite. There is no point in having a beautiful marketing campaign that points to a rundown old website that doesn’t even work properly. There will be a huge disconnect, and people will think they are in the wrong place. Your website needs to be discoverable, so you need to invest time in working out keywords from your target market, and what they are likely to input into a search engine. Once you have done this, you can fully SEO (search engine optimization) every page of your website. Content on the site needs to be updated regularly, so having a blog is essential these days.

Brand awareness

You need a good brand for the business. So think logos and taglines. These must be used on all your content. The idea is to get the brand into people’s minds. In addition, think about your personal brand. You should create your own site where you can authentically promote your business. As a person, you can connect with people more easily, so developing your personal brand is essential. This means that if you have any accolades which make you the perfect person to listen to, such as having gone through a master of occupational therapy program for your clinic, tell your story on a vlog.

Social media

Any business that wants to succeed in the modern world has to have a presence on social media. It is a free way to advertise, and it gives you an unprecedented way to learn about your target audience and connect with them. You need to create a separate method of marketing for each social media platform. However, the onus is on quality posts over quantity. You need to have some glossy images, a good story to tell, think about social responsibility, and what you are doing to help the plant, for example. Have a look at your competitors and members of your target audience to get an idea about what they share. This will give you some ideas about how best to proceed. In terms of frequency of posts, about two to three times a day, every day. You need to be there, but not whitewash people’s feeds as this will have the opposite effect to the one you want, they will switch off.

How To Build A Reputable Contractor Business

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | How To Build A Reputable Contractor Business

Working in the construction industry is a competitive landscape but can also be a rewarding career. It’s up to you to win over new clients and build a book of customers who will use and recommend your services.

As a contractor, your reputation matters and the word will spread quickly about whether or not you know how to do your job. It’s up to you to impress clients and produce quality work, so know there will be a lot of pressure on your shoulders on any given day. Use the following advice to help you build a reputable and successful contractor business, so your company is around for years to come.

Present Ideas & Solutions

As the contractor, it’s your job to come to client meetings prepared to share your knowledge and expertise. Offer up ideas and solutions that your customers will find useful and will help them to achieve their project goals. For example, incorporate the advancements in technology such as https://www.sgspecialties.com/products/contractor-solutions/expansion-joints to help protect and prevent the buildings you create from experiencing any fire or earthquake damages. These are solutions that your customers may not be aware of, and that will help you to construct a better building.

Collect Testimonials

You need to have a solid reputation if you’re going to make it long-term in the construction business. Therefore, collect testimonials from your customers so that others can see the benefits of working with you. People who are interested in hiring you will want to hear what you’re like to work with from other clients and not necessarily from you. The better reviews you have, the more likely it is that you’ll begin to receive more work orders. Use these testimonials as a marketing tool to show potential customers that you’re the best person for the job.

Be Responsive

Although you’re in the business of building and constructing, you’re also in the business of working with people. Your clients should be your number one priority, and you should do whatever’s in your power to keep them happy if you want to succeed. Improve your reputation by being personable and friendly in your interactions and responsive to questions or inquiries that arise. Disappearing for days at a time or not being available to address concerns will make you look bad, and your reputation may take a hit for your actions.

Perfect Your Skill

Another way to build a reputable contractor business is to let your work speak for itself. Perfect your skill by learning from others and your mistakes. Use your free time to practice in areas that are giving you trouble or to take a class and advance your education. You’re going to want to make sure you know what you’re doing and can produce results worth talking about for your customers. If you’re continuously committing errors or not delivering on your promise, then you risk people going elsewhere for these types of services. Be organized and avoid cutting corners or having hidden fees if you want to build an excellent reputation for yourself and your business.

Content Marketing Success Through Audience Targeting

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Content Marketing Success Through Audience Targeting

It seems to happen to the best of us. You devote hours and hours of time to writing a great piece of content that you just know is going to drive hordes of people to your website. Of those hordes of people, hopefully, a few will become customers. For some reason, however, it doesn’t work. Very few people read it and those who do aren’t engaging with you or your business. You’re left wondering what happened and what you could have done better.

Often the problem lies in a disconnect between the content creator and their audience. If a piece of content fails to pick up traction, it’s usually because it doesn’t fit what the audience was searching for. Content marketing towards your target audience is an essential piece of the puzzle. Before you can effectively deliver your message, you need to understand who you are marketing it to and why.

Understanding your target audience is complicated and involves more than one step. Here are some ways to achieve content marketing success by targeting the right audience.

Conduct Market Research

The fact of the matter is if you want to know who your target audience is, you’ve got to do the research. Both SEO and content marketing demand research to be successful. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking up keyword strategies or choosing topics for long-form content, you have to begin by researching what topics people want to know about.

Thankfully, you don’t have to just guess. There are several tools available that can help you find out what topics are trending and how to rank long tail keywords. Audience Key, for example, allows you to optimize content, quantify search audience, map your keyword strategy, and much more. You can find data and analytics that will help you know what’s working and get to know your audience.

Sometimes the research may take just as long as it does to produce your content – and that’s ok. It’s better to take the time to produce content for your intended audience and see results instead of spending all that time to effectively have the content flop.

Engage Your Readers Using Emotion

In any case, you’re looking for your readers to have an emotional response to what you’re saying. Of course, you want clicks, shares, and conversions. It’s your business after all. None of that follows if you can’t reach your audience on an emotional level, however.

One of the easiest ways to drive engagement on your site and connect with your audience is to ask them questions. You want your audience to share their own feelings and opinions to connect with you. Ask your readers what they want to hear about. You can also end your content with direct questions to get the conversation going in the comments. Additionally, ask their opinions on your recommended products and services. Encourage conversation, questions, and healthy debates.

Reconnect With Your Audience

If you are having trouble engaging your audience, try starting over again. You’ll need to get a good understanding of your audience. This includes:

  • Find out what your audience is passionate about, and write content for them.
  • Connect with your readers on an emotional level to build a community. Encourage conversation and questions.
  • Research the market demographics of your audience thoroughly.
  • Remember to include a call to action when you want your audience to do something. Often, people simply need to be told what you’d like them to do.

It’s easy to see how these guidelines can help increase the amount of engagement your content receives, as well as sales and conversions. When it comes to content marketing, it doesn’t have to be a mystery.

Do You Need a Toll Free Number for Your Business?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Do You Need a Toll Free Number for Your Business?In these days of smartphones and websites, does it still make sense to have a toll free number for business? It might surprise you that the answer is “Yes”! Tool free numbers show that you are serious about your business, they are easy to remember and they can help with brand recognition. Even though many people are on calling plans now, the allure of the 800 number has not disappeared.

  • Toll free numbers give your business legitimacy. You might be only one person sitting in a coffee shop, but your customers don’t know that. A toll free number gives an air of professionalism to your venture.
  • A recognizable toll free prefix makes you look like your business is national rather than local. This is mainly perception, but then many sales are based on a customer’s image of your business.
  • When a business is willing to pick up the tab for something, i.e. free shipping or toll free calls, the customer perceives you as willing to go that extra mile to make a sale.
  • Vanity numbers are those ones that start out 1-800-SPL-AWRD. This can help with branding because people tend to remember words better than numbers. Be careful to pick a number that will make sense to customers.
  • Put some effort into choosing your vanity toll free number. The number can describe what you do, relate to the name of your company, make a call for action or an amusing aside. Be sure that customers will be able to connect it to your business.
  • If you choose to get a toll free number for your business, you must connect it to a local number, however, you can change this number if you need to and program the toll free number to ring to different phones depending up the time of day.
  • Toll free numbers allow you to track incoming calls. The number automatically keeps track of the people who have called you.
  • Finally, toll free numbers are easy to remember. They don’t have to be vanity numbers to be easy. They can simply be a memorable sequence of numbers, such as a repeating pattern like 2211 or a sequence such as 1234. Words are easier to remember in general, so vanity numbers are still probably your best bet.

Despite the fact that many people have gotten rid of landlines, tool free numbers are still relevant to business. Put some thought into choosing your number and then let it work for you by connecting customers to your brand. Check out toll free phone numbers today.

Could You Be A Better Entrepreneur?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Could You Be A Better Entrepreneur?

The answer is probably ‘yes’, and the most successful entrepreneurs know that. You need to be confident and aspirational if you want to build a profitable business, but you also need to be humble enough to accept your flaws. If you can continually pinpoint the weaknesses of your company and your leadership skills, then you’ll be able to continually develop solutions which improve your business. It’s up to you to make that happen, however. Simply hiring professionals and delegating responsibilities isn’t enough. You have to guide your team. You have to help them to become as invested in your business as you are. Could you be a better entrepreneur? Probably. Here are some ways in which you could make that happen.

Do your research

Do your research if you want to become a better leader. No entrepreneur knows everything, though many of them give that impression. You can outwardly present the image of an all-knowledgeable business owner, as long as you’re inwardly aware of the fact that you need to continuously learn new things to keep up with the ever-changing business world. Make it your goal to read entrepreneurial books regularly. This will help you to keep your knowledge fresh, even if some of the things you read are things that you already know. The best business leaders keep researching. That includes your target market, of course. Talk to consumers. Learn about the mistakes being made by you and your competitors so you can develop innovative new ideas to win over potential customers in your market.

Keep taking training courses

You should also keep taking training courses if you want to be the best possible business leader. This goes beyond conducting research to learn more about the business world and your particular target market. This is about developing your technical knowledge so you can be more than just a delegator. You might want to consider doing online sales training. You probably have a sales team at your company, but you could help to guide them with more efficient sales strategies if you understand how it works. To be a good leader, you have to understand the different aspects of your business. Take training courses in web design, business finance, and other areas to help the different departmental teams which keep your company running.

Talk to your employees

If you want to become a better leader, then talking to your employees would be a good place to start. Your members of staff could tell you what improvements need to be made to the business. They could give you advice regarding your style of management and the structure of your business’ daily operations. Remember, being a good leader isn’t about doing things on your own. It’s about being a good team player. That means you have to be able to listen to your workers.

In turn, your company will be able to improve because you’ll be pooling the collective creativity of your team members together. This is essential to your growth as a leader, too. Additionally, if you respect your employees, then they’ll respect you, as well. Effective leadership is all about being respected in the eyes of your staff members. Otherwise, whilst they might still appreciate your role as their boss, they won’t feel as if they’re being led by you. That could affect the productivity levels of your workplace, so don’t underestimate the importance of talking to your workers.