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How To Stand Out As A Small Business

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Small Business|How To Stand Out As A Small BusinessWhether you are looking to start a company or your small business is in motion, you will want it to stand out. Although, standing out as a small business can be a challenge. With there being new businesses entering the market every day, you may be at risk of being lost in the sea of similar businesses. Thus, it is important to understand what it takes to stand out and put the tips in motion.

Get the branding right

Your businesses branding is so important to ensure that you are recognizable and distinguishable. Your branding should reflect your businesses vision and purpose. Having niche branding that is unlike any other will help you stand out among the crowd of similar businesses.

For instance, an eye-catching logo that is like no other will ensure that your branding is recognized. It will also make it easy to remember. An inexpensive logo design company like Logoglo can help you with designing your logo to align with your brand. Ensuring that your logo is memorable and unique will be easy to achieve with a design expert. You can rely on them to ensure it matches your business, its branding and your vision.

Have a niche

If your business is similar to others, you may want to have a niche in order to stand out. A niche will make your business unique. It will help you have your own goals and identity that will set you out among the rest.

A niche may not be an easy thing to think of. However, if there is something you want to offer that nobody else does, then go for it. In whatever way you can make your business different, go for it and see how it works. After all, you never know what could happen if you don’t try things as a small business. Plus, the best time to try new things is at the beginning as it is a time where mistakes will likely happen.

Provide value

Providing value to your customers will encourage them to use your business as it will give them a purpose. For instance, offering them the option to shop products before mass release or offering rewards will reflect your appreciation for them.

Keeping customers engaged and feeling respected will help your small business attract loyal customers, which will help your sales and profits.

Utilize marketing

Marketing strategies is key for any business, especially small business. There are many free tools that you can take advantage of to maximize brand awareness and promote your business to new customers.

You can use social media platforms to engage with customers, share new releases, and provide answers. Then, you could use emails to offer discounts and keep customers in the know. Moreover, you can use marketing automation to run your campaigns without needing to be physically present at all times. If you learn the secrets to marketing automation implementation, you’ll soon have the capacity to make your business reach far and wide.

Utilizing marketing strategies will leverage and identify real customers. Being available online and establishing your brand will increase recognition and help you stand out among the crowd.

As a small business owner, it is so important to stand out from the getgo. Whether it be creating a niche or establishing yourself on social platforms, it will help your business be recognizable and reachable.

3 Real Estate Marketing Tips for 2021

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Real Estate Marketing|3 Real Estate Marketing Tips for 2021There has been significant economic concern about inflation rates in the US, which have increased to 4.2% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic recently.

According to one Federal Reserve official, this could have a particularly detrimental impact on the national housing market, as the failure to create sustainable inflation of around 2% could trigger further waves of boom and bust within the sector.

However, there’s no doubt that homeowners are currently looking to cash in on rising property values, with the median price for sales of existing homes up by 23.6% year-on-year in May. So, what marketing tips can help you to optimize your chances of selling your home in the near term?

1. Feature Virtual Tours Through Facebook Live

Most real estate firms now invest heavily in targeted Facebook ads, in order to capture an increased audience in specific locations.

However, such ads are also subject to more checks than others, so the approval process can take longer and be highly debilitating in a volatile marketplace.

The same cannot be said for Facebook Live, however, which can be leveraged immediately and to provide free, real-time tours of marketed properties.

Available through a Facebook Business page, you can optimize your live tours simply by launching a Facebook event URL and promoting specific windows in which potential buyers are invited to join.

Then invite all of your contacts and prospects, to create a highly efficient viewing that connects any number of potential buyers to a particular property within an incredibly short period of time.

Try to time your live tours to ensure that you’re capturing as large a target market as possible while taking steps to optimize the lighting in your home and making sure that it’s presented in the best light possible

2. Grow Your Email List

When you launch a Facebook live event, you can invite your online contacts and individuals featured in your email list.

This provides an opportunity to transcend Facebook and liaise with those who may not be connected through the site, boosting your potential reach and optimizing any return on your marketing spend.

With this in mind, it also makes sense to focus on growing your email list when marketing real estate. This can also benefit a number of alternative digital marketing channels, while you can look to target potential buyers through the creation and distribution of a regular email newsletter through this medium.

Of course, the primary challenge here is incentivizing people to give you their emails in the first place, especially if you look to move away from your existing contacts and expand your network.

The key is to provide something of tangible value to contacts, whether this is a free checklist of things that homeowners must do before selling their home or an educated insight into the prevailing market trends in your community.

3. Create an Integrated Marketing Strategy

The key to successful marketing in any sector in 2021 is to create an integrated approach and one that combines the very best of both offline and online channels.

This way, you can optimize the volume of assisted conversions that you’re able to create as part of the typical customer journey, while also generating targeted and large-scale leads through mass marketing channels such as billboards.

With an integrated approach, you can also leverage a range of highly engaging print materials as a way of building awareness, from direct mail and basic flyers to more lavish and high-quality brochures that showcase property in a more favorable light.

Brochures are definitely a relatively cost-effective way of sharing property information and showcasing high-definition imagery, while they can also feature consistent branding and various reminders that reinforce the brand’s wider visual identity.

Not only can this help to sell properties directly, but it also creates a level of brand recognition that may encourage recipients to use your services when buying (or even selling) real estate in the future.

Are You Protecting Yourself As A Freelancer?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Freelancer|Are You Protecting Yourself As A Freelancer?More and more people are now starting to work from home and provide their skills by freelancing. It has rapidly increased over the last few years, however, because some people have been pushed into it, they have had much less time to plan and research their move to this way of working.

Freelancing, of course, has many benefits such as the ability to work from wherever you like and the flexibility to work around your lifestyle, however, self-employment needs to be well-researched in order to protect yourself and your income.

Self-employed people are protected in the same way as an employee, which can lead to issues. Protecting yourself with a firm that has a good reputation in lawsuits such as the Zarwin Baum lawsuit, outsourcing to an accountant for your taxes, and using an IT service are three ways you can protect yourself, but what uncommon areas need to be looked at?

Let’s have a look below at some of the ways you can protect yourself, that you may not think about.

Sickness And Holidays

This has to be one of the top benefits of being an employee, sick and holiday pay. As soon as you are a freelancer you lose this benefit, and it’s not something that people think about until they need it. This can pose a threat, especially if you need ot take a week off sick, or want to go on a well-deserved holiday without worrying about losing money.

The best way to resolves this is by resting yourself a sickness and annual leave fund. Put some funds to one side each month. This way you have a buffer to rely on if you are sick or go on holiday. If you have a business bank account, then you will probably do well if you pay yourself a wage each month, and leave the remainder in the business bank.

Insurance Is An Essential

It’s natural to make mistakes, therefore, you need to ensure you are protected. You can have strict protocols and consider yourself a strict worker, and still make a mistake. NOt having insurance to protect yourself could have a huge impact on your earnings, especially if you end up being liable for a mistake. Liability insurance is the most common insurance that freelancers use.

Use A Contract

This is the first way that you can protect yourself. It is the number one way you can ensure you are getting the correct payments. You should have a contract for your clients ot sign when you are planning any projects. This both protects your funds as well as protecting you if there are ever any disputes. It provides something for you and your clients to refer to throughout the contract period so you both know what to expect.

Although freelancers may face some challenges, there are still many benefits that outweigh the negative, even more so if you protect yourself with the above tips. As long as you put steps in place to ensure you are protected freelancing is a brilliant way to have control over your career and earning potential.

Monthly Office Checks Your Business Should Run

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StrategyDriven Risk Management Article |Office Checks|Monthly Office Checks Your Business Should RunWhen it comes to creating a safe and positive working environment, you’re always going to need to stay ahead of the curve. You need to be able to anticipate potential hazards within your workspace, and eliminate them wherever possible to keep your team producing the great work they do day in and day out.

But how can you be sure the office is a good place to be? Well, as long as you’re running monthly checks to ensure health and safety is top priority, you’ll be well on your way to crafting an unproblematic workplace. Here are the kind of checks you should be running.

Fire Safety

Fires are the most common hazard in the modern workplace, next to tripping and falling. And in a commercial setting, a fire can happen in a dozen different places at once! From equipment overheating, to someone taking a smoke break in the wrong place, to an electrical fire in the server room, you’ve got your work cut out for you checking here.

You’re going to want to keep multiple fire extinguishers on site at all times, as well as check them as regularly as you perform maintenance on office equipment. Similarly, make sure all potential fuel sources (including waste paper baskets!) are disposed of in a timely and safe manner.

Air Quality

A lot of toxins can leak into the air in a commercial setting; from dust to foreign particles to actual harmful gasses, there are a lot more hazards in the modern workplace than there’s ever been before! And if you’re going to be spending at least 8 hours a day in your office, you owe it to your team’s health to check on the air quality on a monthly basis.

Most of all, keep an eye on your AC or central heating function. A lot can leak through these two systems, and making sure you know the warning signs before a gas accumulates to a hazardous degree is essential. You can read more about keeping your air pure in a workplace setting, but it’s mostly simple care and maintenance; make sure those AC vents have been washed out by a cleaning team!

Mental Health Assurance

You’re also going to want to think about the human element, in terms of health and safety, as most inspection criterias now include mental health and wellbeing as part of the pass rate. And not only that, but if you can’t be sure that your employees even enjoy being in the workplace, how can you ensure they’ll do their best work?

You need to keep work exciting and/or challenging within your office, as well as define the job expectations as clearly as possible. You’ll also want to keep work hours as flexible as possible, and never expect an employee to stay beyond the average 8 hour working period. It’s just good practice this way!

Your office needs checking out; keep health and safety in mind for a much more productive workday.

Keep Your Cost Per Customer Low

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Cost per Customer|Keep Your Cost Per Customer LowAcquisition cost is one of the preferred metrics on Google Ads to enhance the value of your ads. In essence, the acquisition cost refers to how much you are likely to spend on a prospect lead to turn them into a customer. In the world of Google AdWords, the metric is used to automatically increase bids in AdWords auctions to maximize chances when a user is likely to convert.

If you are familiar with this definition of the acquisition cost, you might assume that customer costs refer to the thing. In reality, customers costs are all the costs involved in the acquisition and retention of your customers. The overall customer management process could end up costing you more than you get paid for the product or service. Here are tips to ensure you can keep your cost per customer as low as possible.

Improve your SEM campaigns

As mentioned, Google Ads has strategic acquisition costs bidding. This approach can be successful if you set the most profitable cost. Paid marketing doesn’t have to break the bank. On the contrary, Google Ads lets you choose and manage your budget. But if you’re going to secure high rankings on the SERPs, you want to understand how to improve your ads for best visibility. High bids can win the auction, but other strategies can keep your costs low and your results high. Adding relevant ad extensions such as your phone number can increase the conversion rate. Additionally,m you can add business information to appear only for local searches.

Keep shipping costs profitable

Ecommerce shops have a tough task keeping their costs as appealing as possible. As a result, shipping costs need to be kept intentionally low. However, it can be tricky to manage all shipping-related costs effectively, including return costs, return checks, preparation for international shipping, etc. it might not physically cost more to transport a parcel from A to B, but your team will be working around to clock to manage the logistics strategy. So, why not give yourself some slack and turn to simple order fulfillment services to keep shipping processes cost-effective?

Let a bot help them

Customers frequently need help and guidance. Companies often feel overwhelmed by the volume of calls or emails reporting issues that are easy to solve. It is a time-demanding process that wastes the workforce. Simple queries could be easily managed by an AI bot. Whether a customer wants help finding the right product or needs basic troubleshooting, a bot can guide them effectively through the steps. More complex queries can also be filtered and passed on to the team.

Exceed their expectations

Customers have expectations on the quality of your services or product. The quickest and easiest way to keep customer costs low is simple to deliver precisely what they expect. Exceeding expectations is a popular marketing buzz phrase, but in reality, if you have to work extra to deliver more value than people have paid for, you are ultimately running your business to the ground. Meet expectations at all times, including in terms of communication. Honesty and authenticity in your communication with customers can remove increased costs linked to complaints.