Blogging has become quite popular for small businesses as of late. I have noticed on PR Leads that there are several story requests for experts to talk about the benefits of blogging for small businesses. So, I decided I better do my homework and see what this is all about. It turns out that there are several benefits to blogging for small businesses. Here are the most important ones:
1. Blogging Software is Super Easy to Use: Simply write your thoughts, link to resources, and publish to your blog, all at the push of a few buttons. I use the software blogger.com. It took me 2 minutes to set up my account and 3 minutes to publish my first blog. Check out my blog at: http://uplevelstrategies.blogspot.com/
2. Build Relationships Online: Business blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise and knowledge with a larger audience. You have the opportunity to share a piece of yourself with your community allowing them to get to know you better.
3. Higher Search Engine Rankings: Search engine marketing is hot. Business bloggers are achieving top search engine rankings because search engines rank based on link popularity and easy to index regular content among other factors. Learning the basic skills of search engine optimization and good content management are keys to better rankings for bloggers.
4. Easy Communication: The biggest benefit of Blogging or RSS (see definition below) for your web audience can prove to be a better solution for notification than websites themselves or email. As indicated by Bill Gates in a speech at the Microsoft CEO Summit 2004 in Redmond, Washington: “if you just put information on a Web site, then people don't know to come visit that Web site, and it's very painful to keep visiting somebody's Web site and it never changes. It's very typical that a lot of the Web sites you go to that are personal in nature just eventually go completely stale and you waste time looking at it… And so, getting away from the drawbacks of e-mail -- that it's too imposing -- and yet the drawbacks of the Web site -- that you don't know if there's something new and interesting there – this [blogs & RSS] is about solving that.”
Definitions:
RSS - RSS is an acronym for Rich Site Summary, an XML format for distributing news headlines on the Web, also known as syndication. First started by Netscape as part of the My Netscape site, it expanded through Dave Winer and Userland.
Blog - Weblog, web log or simply a blog, is a web application which contains periodic posts on a common webpage. These posts are often but not necessarily in reverse chronological order. Such a website would typically be accessible to any Internet user.
About the author:
Kelly K. O'Neil is a featured author on TAB Money Group. She is the Chief Strategy Officer, UpLevel Strategies Business & Marketing guru Kelly O’Neil is passionate about helping entrepreneurs succeed in business through her Business Mastery Success System. She is the lead author of “Visionary Women Inspiring the World: 12 Paths to Personal Power” (Skyward, 2005) and is writing her second book Guerilla Business Strategy with mega-marketing genius Jay Conrad Levinson. For more information, or to subscribe to O'Neil's Arrive! E-newsletter filled with countless tips and resources for creating more profit in your business, visit http://www.uplevelstrategies.com. Please contact UpLevel Strategies at (408) 615-8150 for a Complimentary 30 Minute Strategy Session.
©2008 - TAB Money Group Money Group Pros
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Creating A Value Proposition For Your Business by: Trey Pennewell / TAB Money Group
Marketing experts have long been using the concept of creating a value proposition for their services or products. If you do not know what your value proposition is or even what a value proposition is then you need to spend some time developing one. A value proposition has many names. Some refer to a value proposition as a unique selling point or an inferred positioning statement. No matter what name you give it, a value proposition is critical for a business to successfully sell their product or service.
A value proposition has three primary elements that you should focus on. The first of these elements is the target market segment. Who are you trying to sell your product to? Who do you believe that your customer base is? These are easy questions to answer for some while difficult for others. If you are selling men's hair coloring to remove gray hair then it is easy to identify your target market. You are looking for men over 40 years old primarily. If you are selling make-up then you are focusing on women only. However some products make it more difficult to define the target market segment. If for example, you are selling automobiles then you want to appeal to a vast array of people, men, women, various age groups, etc. You need to spend time thinking about which target market segment that you want to buy your product or service and whom you think will actually purchase it. If you are selling high dollar furniture, you do not want to market to a lower socioeconomic customer base. If you are selling low priced automobiles, you will want to focus on that market segment instead of the more affluent market.
The second element to a successful value proposition is the reasons why a customer would buy your product or service. This is a point of differentiation amongst your competitors. Put simply, why would a potential customer choose your product or service over a competitor? Depending on your marketing strategy there are a variety of reasons that a customer may choose you over a competitor. Some of these reasons may include, price differentiation, quality, brand name, customer service, etc. As a business owner you need to decide which of these factors you want to focus on the most. Do you want to set your product apart from others because of the price? Do you want to draw a customer base that is focused on quality? Of course in a perfect world we would offer the customer the best of all these categories, but that is very hard to achieve. Appealing to both the cost conscience and the person looking for name brands is quite challenging and may very well be impractical.
The third element of a successful value proposition is comparison with other products. This is similar to defining why customers would choose your product or service over others. This is a frame of reference for you and for potential customers. If you sell Kia automobiles your frame of reference will likely be on the value of the vehicle. Conversely, if you sell Mercedes automobiles your frame of reference will be on the prestige associated with it and the quality of the vehicle. Volvo is often associated with being the leader in safety in the automobile industry so their frame of reference is different from both Kia and Mercedes. Understand that all of these automakers are extremely successful in their individual target markets. You too must choose what approach you want to take with your product or service line. Do you want to position your product as a value, a prestige product, a higher quality, etc.? Once you have decided what your frame of reference is you can begin your marketing campaign.
It is critical that you choose a marketing position that you can defend. Much like Kia is able to defend their claim to be inexpensive, Volvo has numbers to back up their safety claims. Positioning involves making a clear choice of the target segment to be served, the points of difference compared to the competitors and the frame of reference for the customers. A successful business offers more than one single benefit and appeals to more than one segment of the market while staying focused on the key benefit of that product or service while identifying to whom it has the greatest appeal. Positioning allows the business to choose with whom it competes.
Now look at your product or service and start thinking carefully about what you want your value proposition to be. It is quite difficult to change that value proposition once it has been implemented. For example, consider if Kia tried to compete with the customer base that Mercedes has. It would be quite difficult to implement, although not impossible. So get started today in developing that value proposition before throwing away money on misdirected advertisements.
About the author:
Trey Pennewell is a featured author on TAB Money Group. He ghost writes for http://thePhantomWriters.com.
Before joining the Phantom Writers, he had written keyword optimized content for hundreds of websites, to pay his way through college. He continues to write because he enjoys the process of research and writing content that others will find valuable. He has written on topics ranging from internet technology to online business and marketing, and he has even written on topics related to his degree fields of sociology and medical business administration.
©2008 TAB Money Group - All Rights Reserved Money Group Pros
Double Your Business Results Using The Penny Model Double Your Business Results Using The Penny Model
Doubling your business results is much easier than many you realize. Especially, when you can implement a simpler process, you CHANGE how you THINK. Before explaining how to double your business results, I would like to share with you the penny model. Using this approach YOUR business results DOUBLE in 30 days.
Beginning on Day 30, you now have a penny. By Day 60, your one penny has grown to 2. Within 3 months or 90 Days, you have 4 pennies. Are you starting to get the picture?
Continuing on with the Penny Model, your fortune starts to look something like this:
Day 120 – 8 pennies
Day 150 – 16 pennies
Day 180 – 32 pennies
Six months have now flown by and you have increased your penny 32 times. Wow! And you thought doubling your business was not possible.
Day 210 – 64 pennies
Day 240 – 128 pennies
Day 270 – 256 pennies
Day 300 – 512 pennies
Ten months later your efforts are now securing a 512 return from that initial first penny. Yet, the best is still to come.
Day 330 – 1024 pennies
Day 360 – 2048 pennies
A year has now passed and that one, single penny now has the value of 2,408 pennies, far more than doubled. And even if for some reason, you didn’t achieve 2,408 pennies, would you complain if you only had 128 or even 32? I think not.
Okay, “So what does that mean for my business?” you may be asking yourself right now? Plenty and let me explain why.
Let the penny represent your daily actions or activity. For example, you call 100 people, speak to 20 of them, schedule 5 appointments and receive one sale. By increasing your calls on a daily basis for the next two weeks to reach another 10 people each day, you will have another sale at the end of two weeks.
Or maybe you currently schedule only 3 appointments per week and it took you 50 dial ups (number of time attempting to contact a potential sales lead) from the previous week to secure those 3 appointments. By doubling your dial-ups to 100 per week, you would now have double the appointments to 6. Given your close ratio, you could easily double or triple your business within a very short time.
Even if you believe that you can’t double your phone calls (your belief system may be another reason why you can’t double your results and that’s an entirely different article), consider what would happen if you increased your performance by just 10%. A 10% increase in effort, which isn’t that much more, can be compared to a penny to a dime or a dime to a dollar.
If I am currently averaging $52,000 in sales per year, 10% would mean an additional $5,200 or just $100 more per week. Using your sales and tracking numbers, which I am sure that you have, you will know exactly how many calls you will have to make to increase your weekly sales. Maybe it is just a case of up-selling or even asking a good client for a referral.
The Penny Model is a very simple way to see how quickly your activity can double your business results. All you need to do is to keep an open mind and look to the possibilities instead of limitations. Of course, a proven goal setting and goal achievement action plan probably wouldn’t hurt either.
To read other articles about business go to TAB on Business.
About the author:
Leanne Hoagland-Smith is a featred author on TAB Money Group. She helps people & organizations to double results through ROI driven coaching, training & development. If increasing your revenue, improving your performance or finding balance interests email info@processspecialist.com or call 219.759.5601.
©2008 TAB Money Group- All Rights Reserved Money Group Pros
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