SmallBusinessNewz - For Business Professionals

Google Offers More Free Webinars, Training

Doug Caverly — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:43:25 -0400

Small business owners who use Google AdWords and/or Google Analytics - along with small business owners who don't, but are interested - should make some time in their schedules. Google's decided to promote a number of free online training sessions.

Survey Suggests Customer Reviews Good for Business

Chris Crum — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:48:39 -0400

Online reputation management company RatePoint released some findings from a released some results from a survey on customer reviews. The company reports that customer reviews are six times more likely to impact a business positively than negatively.

Ideas For Keeping Employee Morale High

Chris Crum — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:19:19 -0400

This week, SmallBusinessNewz published article about how employers are controlling employee morale. We looked at results from a survey conducted by HR firm TriNet. What do you do to keep morale high? Tell us.

To recap, let's look at some of the findings from that again:

NFIB Contacts Congress With Credit Recommendations

Doug Caverly — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:46:14 -0400

Small business owners who are still having trouble getting loans may be happy to hear that the National Federation of Independent Business is doing its best to help. This week, the NFIB sent a position paper on the issue to members of Congress and the president's administration.

Suggestion Boxes May Represent Great Source Of Ideas

Doug Caverly — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:47:06 -0400

One school of thought claims that, when it comes to suggestions, a fresh perspective is often best. From this stems the existence of consultants, "efficiency firms," and so on. Another idea is that familiarity results in knowledge, and to capitalize on this concept, an old-fashioned (or digital) suggestion box may be just the thing.

How Employers Are Controlling Morale

Chris Crum — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:01:42 -0400

HR firm TriNet released the results of an interesting survey looking at employee morale and what small businesses are doing to keep it high.

Is it staying high? Here is how respondents answered:

5 Things You Can Do to Spark Media Interest

Chris Crum — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:57:25 -0400

A little extra attention never hurts, and if you can get some media coverage for your business, you can get a lot of extra exposure. This is generally free exposure, at that.

Microsoft Wants Symbiotic Relationship With Small Biz

Doug Caverly — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:38:54 -0400

A lot of marketing material has three parts: the main claim, a statement from an employee or exec, and a corroborating testimonial from some outside source. And now, UK small businesses are being given the opportunity to become Microsoft's outside source.

How Google Wave Will Impact Business

Abby Johnson — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:42:55 -0400

Did you realize that email was designed in the 1960's? Do you think it's ready for an update? Lars and Jens Rasmussen of Google thought so when they began working on a project that turned into Google Wave. They wanted to incorporate new forms of communication into the older forms.

Small Business Stories You May Have Missed This Week

Chris Crum — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:54:48 -0400

As you may or may not know, I spend a lot more time writing for WebProNews than I do SmallBusinessNewz. That's not because I have any less respect for SmallBusinessNewz readers. WebProNews is just our flagship publication, and it requires a lot of my time.

Yahoo Answers Alters Linking Rules

Doug Caverly — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:53:45 -0400

Small business marketers should take note: it's become a little harder to swing by Yahoo Answers and leave a link to your site. Still, if you make a regular habit of providing information, some new restrictions could wind up working in your favor.

Marketers used to leave links all over Yahoo Answers for the sake of search engine optimization. Then Yahoo Answers started using the nofollow attribute. This move cut down on spam, making users happier, although it must have frustrated some individuals.

Marketing Tactics That You Need To Know

Stacy Karacostas — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:52:24 -0400

When it comes to marketing and advertising your small business, you need to focus on more than just attracting new customers or clients. In fact, that’s the most expensive and difficult way to grow your business.

Instead try using a mix of these three types of marketing tactics to get new clients and keep them coming back for more…

If you’re like most small business owners the majority of your marketing and advertising is focused on bringing in new business.

Get Your Customers to "Buy Now."

Chris Crum — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:48:19 -0400

We talked recently about getting your products in Google shopping searches. You don't have to be a Google Checkout user for this, but if you are a Google Checkout user, Google is now providing a "Buy Now" button that could prove to be a much needed call-to-action for users.

Two Small Business Organizations Dubbed Bogus

Doug Caverly — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:57:06 -0400

Small business owners should know that there might be some intruders (of a sort) in their midst. The Main Street Alliance and Small Business Majority have been singled out by other small business associations as groups that are more interested in politics than representing real companies.

A "Less Risky" Approach to Starting a Business

Abby Johnson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:30:51 -0400

Wouldn't it be great to live a risk-free life? It might sound enticing at first but would probably turn out to be pretty boring. The same idea applies to launching a business as well. When starting a business however, most entrepreneurs would prefer to have as little risk as possible.

Report Looks at Email Deliverability Metrics

Chris Crum — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:26:04 -0400

Deliverability is perhaps the greatest obstacle that email marketers face. Even if you have a good-sized list, and great content, getting the message to the inboxes of everyone on that list can still be a tricky task.

Thanks to spammers and email filters set up by both service providers, as well as users (among other factors), deliverability has become more difficult over the years.

Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates May Be Easy To Cut

Doug Caverly — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:49:25 -0400

Many small businesses are really, really close to making a lot more money, according to the results of some new studies. But the significant problem of shopping cart abandonment has consumers essentially snatching back the cash at the last moment.

FPB Set To Attend Growth Capital Review Workshop

Doug Caverly — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:50:55 -0400

Pretty much everybody accepts that, sooner or later, the economy will return to normal and small businesses will be able to get loans once again. But the timetable is pretty unclear, and so the Forum of Private Business is still fighting to make sure all of this occurs in the near future.

Twitter-Approved Marketing

Chris Crum — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:25:13 -0400

Hopefully you're not thinking, "Oh no, not another Twitter article." Frankly, I wouldn't blame you, because we are all certainly bombarded with everything Twitter. But when you're running a small business, it's not really something that should be ignored.

Are You Using Google Analytics?

Stacy Karacostas — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:23:47 -0400

Are you playing pin the tail on the donkey with your Website? You know, blindly taking marketing action without ever knowing if you’re even close to your target or goal?

I can tell you that if you don’t have analytics set up on your site, or you’ve never looked at them, you are operating blind. And it’s probably costing you money.

YouTube Readying New Channel Design

Doug Caverly — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:02:50 -0400

Small businesses that have presences on YouTube are going to be subjected to a sort of forced redecoration in the near future. New channel designs are on the way, and depending on what sort of category you fall into, will take over on either July 15th or July 29th.

Bringing Back Relationship Marketing

Abby Johnson — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:12:53 -0400

As defined by the Business Dictionary, relationship marketing is, "Promotional and selling activities aimed at developing and managing trusting and long-term relationships with larger customers. Customer profile, buying patterns, and history of contacts is maintained in a sales database, and a service representative (also called account executive) is assigned to one or more major customers to fulfill their needs and maintain the relationship." Sounds like a pretty good marketing technique, huh? Why does it seem to have essentially gone out of style?

Getting Your Products in Google Shopping Searches

Chris Crum — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:22:54 -0400

Google has a helpful video up on its Google Webamster Central YouTube channel about Google Product Search for webmasters. The video covers areas like benefits and background, best practices when submitting info, frequently asked questions, and healing pain points.

FPB Fights "Burden Of Regulation"

Doug Caverly — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:39:24 -0400

Many people get a break when they finish with college or high school in the sense that they're forever done writing long, senseless papers. Not small business owners. New research drives home just how much time and money UK small business owners lose due to paperwork and red tape.

No Site Search? You May Be Missing Out on Sales

Chris Crum — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:19:14 -0400

If you are selling any number of goods online, you really need to have a search function on your site. If the user cannot easily find what they are looking for, without spending too much time on it, that is not a positive user experience.

U.S. Finalists For Small Business Excellence Award Named

Doug Caverly — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:45:40 -0400

A small business contest that we talked about way back in February is now reaching its last stages. Dell and the National Federation of Independent Business have named ten U.S. finalists for this year's Small Business Excellence Award.

Marketing to the Carefree

Chris Crum — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:53:01 -0400

If you're a regular reader of SmallBusinessNewz, you've probably read a few recent posts based on another post from Google about marketing during the recession. In that original post, Google's Yael Davidowitz looked at four different segments and listed some tactics for marketing to each of them.

So far, we've looked at marketing to:

More Entrepreneurs Taking Second Jobs

Doug Caverly — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:51:05 -0400

When times are tough - or even when everything's near-perfect - it can be quite nice to have an additional source of income. And, although it might be better still if everyone could just win the lottery and retire, a number of small business owners appear to be accepting this as they take on second jobs.

Marketing to the Well Off

Chris Crum — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:05:16 -0400

Google recently featured a post on its Retail Advertising Blog, giving tactics for marketing to four different groups of people in the current state of the economy.

4th Of July Celebrations Should Be Bigger This Year

Doug Caverly — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:55:36 -0400

Mother's Day wasn't great for businesses, according to National Retail Federation estimates, with spending down 10.6 percent on a year-over-year basis. Father's Day was better, with a decrease of just 3.9 percent occurring. And now, with the 4th of July approaching, it looks like we might make it back into positive territory.