Home Wealth Project

Why Profit Should Be Your Most Important Goal

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

This time of year many business owners revisit goals and objectives for the coming year. I know that I do and it’s a practice that helps me focus on what’s really important all the way to the task level.

Mr.Thomas via Flickr CC

In all my years of working with small business owners and suggesting they do the same one word hardly gets brought up in the goal setting conversation and that word is profit.

I know every business hopes in the end to make a profit, but few make it a measure of success. I also know that may times small business owners look at what they pay themselves as profit, but here’s the problem with that. What you pay yourself is what you get paid for doing a job. Profit is what you gain from the investment of your time, talent and in some cases blood and guts.

Without profit what you’ve created is a really, really hard job. In fact, one of the saddest things I encounter is a small business owner working their tail off with no profit to show and compensation far below what someone else would ever suggest they do the work for.

So many businesses get fixated on growth, but revenue growth without profit is simply more work. Set goals for profit levels and make decisions based on growing profit.

Profit is the measure of the return on your investment. Profit is how you build something you can sell. Few others are crazy enough to buy your job, but profit is the demonstration that yours is more than a job.

You must start to make profit, over above your fair market wage, a primary goal for the immediate and long term future health of your business.

My recommendation is that your pick up Simple Numbers, Straight Talk, Big Profits!: 4 Keys to Unlock Your Business Potential

It’s a great way to start understanding this important topic in plain English.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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The most important page on the web is the page you build yourself

Dec 12th

The internet is an engine of connection. It has been from the start (email, chat, forums, blogs, social media…)

One reason that so many of the most popular sites online are those that permit people to express and expose their ideas is that those are the pages we care most about. We go back to see how people responded, how the traffic is, what we can do to improve the page.

Lifestyle media isn’t a fad. It’s what human beings have been doing forever, with a brief, recent interruption for a hundred years of professional media along the way. That interruption is fading away, and lifestyle media is resurging. People publish. Instead of denigrating user-generated content (what an obscure way to describe human stories), marketers need to understand that this is what we care about.

We shouldn’t be surprised when someone chooses to publish their photos, their words, their art or their opinions. We should be surprised when they don’t.

View full post on Seth’s Blog

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The Most Important Element of Your Employee Handbook

Oct 24th

The Most Important Element of Your Employee Handbook

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Lots of companies invest money and resources in the creation of employee handbooks. These valuable tools usually dive deeply into rules, regulations, mission, policy and conduct, but often ignore what might be the most important category of all – marketing.

Any employee that comes into contact with a prospect or client is performing a marketing function. The question is, do they know how to perform that marketing function in a way that represents the organization accurately and positively.

Business owners must add marketing training as a major component of the ongoing development of every member of the staff. This includes new hires as well as routine, perhaps quarterly, all hands sessions.

Below are the kinds of things that need to be worked into the marketing training of your staff.

Here’s how to spot our ideal client

Write a paragraph that paints a vivid picture of the kind of client you seek, including the kinds of problems or challenges they are experiencing that make them right for you.

Here’s how to present our unique point of differentiation

Give your staff a simple, yet compelling, way to introduce what your firm does that’s unique. This is your core marketing message packaged in an elevator pitch kind of way.

Let them practice this in role-playing situations until they are comfortable delivering it in an authentic manner.

These are the trigger phrases for our prospects

People rarely walk around saying they need your product or service. What they do, however, is lament the lack of something, talk about specific problems or state an aspiration.

Instead of saying I wish I had some new accounting software they say things like I can’t ever get a handle on my receivables.

Your entire staff should know the most common things people actually say that would indicate they could be an ideal prospect.

These are our brand standards for images, colors and type

It’s funny how much time and money the marketing department might spend on getting the color and font just right, but then everyone else in the business that creates communication just wings it.

The best way to adhere to brand standards is to make them internal as well as external. Train everyone on the use of color, type and images and demand that they adhere to these standards in internal communication. This will ensure that everyone is consistent in the use of the visual elements of your marketing.

This is our current lead generation campaign

Show off your latest ads, direct mail creative and offers that are being put out in every medium. Make sure that your entire staff can talk about your current promotions.

Not only does this allow them to feel more engaged in the marketing, it equips them to talk about it when asked.

Here’s how we educate and serve our customers

Make sure the entire staff is required to read the company blog, understands all of the educational content, attends your online training and routinely takes a shift answering customer service calls.

Here’s how to refer a prospective client or employee

Make employee referrals an expectation and place appropriate emphasis on it by turning it into a game with a clear set of rules and way to win.

All of the education done in the previously mentioned steps will make this a natural focus.

Here’s how we measure marketing success

Show your staff how to know if they are winning the game. Share the key strategic indicators your organization uses to measure success. Teach them what these indicators mean and help them dig in and find a way to tie what they do to one or more of these numbers.

If you can get every employee to realize the way their day-to-day contribution is added to a key indicator of success and ultimately to the overall success of the organization you give them a way to connect everything they do with success.

Now cutting cost in their department can contribute to lowering the client acquisition cost.

Every business is a marketing business and all employees, trained in this manner, can become contributing members of the marketing team, no matter their job title.

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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11 Dumb Scandals vs. Actual Important Issues

Jul 14th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

The Internet (and the American public) are never short of scandals. We peddle them like fruits, always calling a new celebrity out on their addiction, affair, private text messages or offensive jokes. While we are busy paying attention to crap that really doesn’t matter, we’re distracted from larger (and more important) issues at hand. Here are 11 ‘scandals’ that dumb us down, and 15 actually significant problems to counter each one.

Lindsay’s Liquor Problem vs. All the Black Crackheads in Jail

Lindsay Lohan’s life is so hard. Being told not to party, partying anyway, getting caught, being subjected to house ‘arrest’ in your awful(ly) spacious duplex (complete with a terrible balcony), and being subjected to constant paparazzi harassment after leaving Whole Foods is all very tragic. However, it’s not a very exciting news story. No one would care about some bratty little girl’s alcoholic trials and tribulations while growing up, right? Actually, it’s making a lot of stupid headlines. When will this boring charade finally end?

Lindsay Lohan’s choice of cocktail is definitely less important than:

The US Sentencing Commission’s decision to allow up to 12k federal crack offenders to become eligible for release or a reduced sentence under the Fair Sentencing Act. Although the prison industrial complex retains its retard-strength, the Fair Sentencing Act is at least a little progressive. In some areas, possession of only 5 grams held a minimum five year sentence…the same mandatory sentence for possession of 100x more (500 grams) powder cocaine. This law will save an estimated $200 million dollars over the next five years. It’s a start. It’s also worth noting that the userbase of crack is mostly black, while that of cocaine is mostly white. Racist laws much?

Casey Anthony’s OJ Verdict vs. Our Crappy Justice System

Whether she did it or not, she was found not guilty. She may not have been rich like OJ, but she was pretty and white.

Maybe we should stop talking specifically about Casey Anthony, and more about:

The fact that the justice system is incredibly flawed. Restraining Orders are often useless against the people they’re meant to deter. Sentences faced by the prosecuted are often unfairly distributed, such as an 18 year old facing up to 8 years for placing a blowup doll in his high school as a prank as compared to the high school rapist who was not only freed but allowed to play varsity basketball, where his victim was asked to cheer for him. She was removed from the squad when she refused — then ordered to pay $45,000 of the school’s attorney’s fees for filing a “frivolous” lawsuit about the matter. Racist and prejudice judges are more common than we’d like to think. It seems like our laws and standards are the things that need revising. Maybe then there would have been enough evidence to convict Anthony of what common sense would tell you was a filicide.

Gottfried’s Insensitivity vs. No More Spicy Tuna Rolls

Gilbert Gottfried was recently fired by AFLAC for making some pretty insensitive jokes about Japan’s tragic earthquake and tsunami mega combo. It seems that celebrities sometimes forget that everyone is watching them with hawk eyes, waiting for a slip-up that can be sold or used to publicly humiliate the mistaken. Gottfried’s jokes were definitely in poor taste and made him look like a total jerk. Sometimes people are only able to deal with serious issues by trying to lighten the problem with humor. Sometimes people say things casually when others are taking them seriously. Whatever the reason, a little humor never hurt anyone. Gottfried wasn’t responsible for any deaths in Japan, nor did he seem to be joking in a hateful or prejudice manner. If Japan had an extra donated dollar for every person who complained about Gottfried’s comments, how much more do you think they’d have?

Maybe we should ignore the (ignorant? mean? thoughtless?) people we don’t like and pay a little more attention to more important issues at hand, such as:

Tuna are on their way to dodo-dom. It might sound stupid, but Japan is facing Tuna extinction. A multi-billion dollar industry, Tuna fishing in the Mediterranean may come to an end within the next five years. Not only would this effect the economy of a number of countries, but the ecosystem as well.

Additionally, your tuna salad or spicy tuna roll may be farmed, and therefore fed a whole bunch of crap you probably wish never existed.

Tracy Morgan Deserves Death Penalty vs. Those Sick and Blasphemous Homosexuals

Tracy Morgan is in trouble again, and not for joking to stab his imaginary homosexual son. Only a few weeks after the media frenzy inspired by his homophobic ranting, he made jokes during a stand-up routine about ‘retard strength’ and referred to a woman he dated as “a cripple.” Although these comments were far from PC, Morgan, like many other comedians, is known for making lewd and inappropriate jokes. He’s a comedian. He was in a comedy club. Although his comments were nonviolent (albeit rude, as is his nature) and non-hateful, the media went nuts. Also, a person with a crippled limb is technically a cripple. If Tracy Morgan is crucified for remarks against any special interest group, what about every other comedian?

Maybe we should be paying less attention to Morgan’s declining ability to write jokes and more attention to:

Pennsylvania state senator Rick Santorum thinks “the right to privacy doesn’t exist in the United States Constitution” and called bans on gay marriage “common sense.”

“I do believe the family, integrity of the family is important for the future of our country. But that does not mean that, that I don’t like people or I hate people or that there’s something wrong. The only thing that’s wrong is their opinion.”
- Rick Santorum

Oh, and he also blamed victims (see: children) who were sexually assaulted by priests for engaging in “a basic homosexual relationship.”

Weiner Overdoses on Penis Jokes vs. Rapist Politician, NH

Anthony Weiner was recently caught sending dick pics and sexually suggestive messages to a stripper in Las Vegas. Big deal. It’s not like most Americans haven’t ever done a selfish thing. That’s not to condone cheating, but it is to say that the harsh judgment passed on him and the media circus surrounding his personal life are disgustingly hypocritical. Famous people are only here to serve and entertain the rest of us paupers, and damn their normal-people lives! They are expected to apologize for personal mistakes which don’t affect anyone who would be reading about them in a newspaper.

Maybe we should be paying less attention to Weiner’s Weiner and more attention to:

Rapist politician Jeffrey Gray. Gray is a man convicted of stalking and assault. He is also accused of a kidnapping, assault and rape (which he apparently accomplished with the help of Craigslist) and is an elected board member in New Hampshire. Gray has a storied criminal history, including three misdemeanors involving an ex-girlfriend who took a restraining order out against him — and later renewed it, reporting new instances of harassment and threats of suicide. Despite his repeated domestic violence offenses and accusations of rape, Gray was elected anyway. Way to go, New Hampshire.

Octomom vs. Crevice Groping, Coming to an Airline Near You

Octomom is an idiot. That’s no secret. She’s also terribly amusing in the way only a burning bus full of your worst enemies could be. You feel bad, but you can’t really help, so why not enjoy it a little? Octomom has recently admitted to literally hating all of her children. She told The Daily Mail that she wishes her octopussy was nothing more than a regular, un-prefaced one. We all knew she couldn’t pay adequate attention to fourteen little “animals”, as she so affectionately called them while one child was being photographed eating paint chips.

Octomom’s vaginal lamenting is disgustingly funny (and kind of infuriating), but we have reason to be suicidal as well:

TSA is threatening to invade our crevices like so many unwanted babies because “the government” (whoever that is) has warned that terrorists plan to surgically implant explosives on their bodies in order to surpass airport security. “Experts” said that scanners might not be able to detect bombs placed under the skin, so new screening procedures may be developed to thwart those pesky suicide bombers. Prepare to clench your jaw.

Arnold, The Violator vs. Religious People Ruining the World

Arnold Schwarzenneger recently came under public scrutiny when he was found to have fathered a bastard child with his housekeeper, a woman with whom he was having an affair for possibly longer than a decade. Mildred Baena sold her story to the tabloids, successfully screwing over Schwarzenegger in the process. His private life instantly became a hot topic in tabloids and on the news, where news reporters everywhere paused to consider not only the standards of their station, but the definition of the word ‘news’. There were exclusive photos, interviews, talk of lawsuits and a divorce. Schwarzenegger’s choice to cheat and refusal to admit paternity to his illegitimate child may have been hurtful to his immediate family, but it was a little less socially significant than dozens of events which do effect the public at large.

Maybe we should be less concerned with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s lucky bastard and more concerned with:

Ohio named as one of the ‘worst states in terms of women’s access to abortion and contraceptive services’, and seem to enjoy the title as well. How else would one explain the state’s choice to ignore a bill designed to assist rape victims in preventing unwanted pregnancies and therefore avoiding an even more unwanted abortion? Not only was the bill ignored, receiving little media coverage, but it was also berated by Ohio Right to Life. Right to Life claims that the bill would force religious hospitals and ‘pro-life taxpayers’ to prescribe the drug. The stupidity is astounding. Either way, even the recent discovery that fish can use tools is more interesting than Arnold’s Anthony Weiner.

Charlie Sheen’s Boring Rants vs. Corporate Personhood Actually Being a Real Thing

Charlie Sheen is kind of funny, but he’s not vastly different from any other drunk or drug addicted attention whore who’s given attention and decides to run with it. Tiger blood, winning, magically curing addiction using only brain power and a lot of other almost immediately played out jokes were spawned from Charlie Sheen’s somewhat humorous rantings. People began paying to see him ‘perform’ on stage. He was a billion new memes at once. People argued over whether he was a junkie lunatic, a really cool guy, or a little of both. Ultimately, who cares? The craziest thing he did was have the courage to be honest about his drug use without apologizing to a bunch of people who don’t deserve it (that’s us! the public!).

While Charlie Sheen is making videos on The YouTubes, we should really be watching:

The movement to abolish corporate personhood, which sounds a lot more boring but is more important than any viral Internet video you’ll ever watch. American laws protect corporations, and corporations own (and pwn) the crap out of the American people. As ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. FEC, unlimited amounts of cash can be funneled into political campaigns from companies or richer-than-God individuals. It’s no secret that companies basically try to ‘buy’ laws that favor their businesses, and the government is protecting their right to do so by allowing corporations to maintain the same rights as a legal person.

Wes Cage vs. Our Police State

Weston Cage likes airing out his dirty laundry on Facebook, and has made a bunch of derogatory remarks about his wife via status updates, which he also used to announce his divorce. He’s like the character his father plays in that terrible Wicker Man remake: a little crazy, unattractive, violent, and unable to hold anyone’s attention span for longer than ten minutes. Unless that ‘anyone’ is a crazed (Nu-Metal) death cult trying to burn him at the stake.

It’s unclear whether or not anyone actually cares about Cage’s Facebook drama. While Cage enjoys the attention, there are more important people who do not:

The police, who are now trying to make it illegal for you to watch them. An Illinois man was facing a possible 4 to 15 year sentence because he recorded his own arrest. Although a few states’ laws maintain that both parties must consent to videotaping for it to be legal, this law has been twisted and misconstrued by the police in more than just the said states. If they want to, the police can easily find a way to arrest you for looking at them the wrong way. Just look at Emily Good, who was arrested for filming police from her front yard even though she was clearly posing no threat. Charges were dismissed, but the police remain the only people who manage to harass and detain innocent people without consequence.

Roger Ebert’s Smart Mouth-Thing vs. Modern Slavery

Ryan Dunn broke the hearts of CKY/Jackass fans across the nation when he crashed his Porche in a drunk driving accident and died. He had been bringing laughter and fun to some for over 10 years, and the attachment to the cheery and ridiculous Jackass crew was understandable… But not so much for Roger Ebert, who posted a snarky tweet about Dunn’s death before it was confirmed that he was, indeed, very drunk at the time of the accident.

“Friends don’t let jackasses drink and drive”, he wrote. This one person’s stupid opinion caused a lot of backlash, getting lambasted as insensitive and mean. Some people even went as far as to make fun of Ebert’s medical condition, which really isn’t any better than making a general comment about the dangers and consequences of drunk driving. Ebert was basically saying “driving drunk is stupid and has dire consequences, as you can see.” He had a bit of an attitude when he said it. He made it into a bit of a semantics joke. Whatever. Celebrating Ryan Dunn’s life through screenings of his videos/movies would have been a lot more productive than whining about someone else’s opinion.

Either way, maybe we should care less about Ebert’s aggressive stance against drunk driving and more about:

Modern day slavery. The government is using prisoners as slave labor. In U.S. Federal prisons, inmates are being paid pennies an hour to do work for military corporations. They often work in dangerous and toxic environments without safety equipment and receive no benefits or vacation days. Oh, and if it weren’t pretty much like old-fashioned slavery already, guess what else reeks of history repeating itself? According to a U.S. Bureau of Justice Department report there were 846,000 black men in prison in 2008. That means that there are likely more African American men doing slave labor in prisons right now than there were actual African American men who were slaves.

Tobey Maguire Plays Poker or Something vs. Arizona Town Council Members Stealing Millions of Dollars

Tobey Maguire has a lot of money. He gambled a bunch of it away in high-stakes poker games, but also won a lot of it back. Maguire also fought with convicted Ponzi scheme felon Brad Ruderman about who owed who thousands of thousands of dollars. No one wrote a bunch of articles about that time you drunkenly lost ten dollars at poker in your basement, forgot about it, and then fought with your friend for ‘stealing’, so why is this any more sensational? The money is higher, but none of it belongs to anyone except Tobey (and possibly Ruderman, but probably not since he lost the legal battle and was filing for bankruptcy anyway). A bunch of scans of Tobey’s checks later and the scandal is all but settled.

Maybe we should care less about Tobey’s leisure activities and more about the crazy money laundering coverups happening in Arizona right now:

Quartzsite, Arizona, has up to $250,000 in checks disappear mysteriously per year… only to reappear in the pockets of allegedly corrupt council members. After a council meeting in which a woman was arrested for speaking out against corrupt council and police activities during her allotted floor time. The woman, Jennifer Jones, is arrested despite protests from the mayor, who is also being persecuted for trying to uncover the truth about the missing money and illegal scandals that may be happening behind closed doors.

After the event, the town inappropriately declared a state of emergency during which Foster was basically stripped of his title as mayor, and council meetings were held without public comment/notice/viewing. Although a recording of the impromptu meetings were set to be released on Monday, no such documentation has surfaced.

View full post on Business Pundit

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Marketing Is Your Most Important System

Nov 17th

Marketing Is Your Most Important System

This content from: Duct Tape Marketing

Image: Deliver Magazine

A lot of people ask me what Duct Tape Marketing is. Usually Duct Tape Marketing represents one of the various parts they’ve come into contact with.

There’s this blog, a podcast, a newsletter, books, self-study courses, and a network of independent Duct Tape Marketing consultants around the globe.

Even with all of those tangible representatives of Duct Tape Marketing, more than anything it’s an audacious idea that marketing for the small business can be simple, effective and affordable when practiced in a systematic fashion.

It’s my experience that any business, regardless of industry, can benefit from this view and that marketing can be stripped down to the effective implementation of these 7 steps and a big part of my business purpose revolves around bringing this message to the small business world

Develop strategy before tactics – Base all decisions on an ideal customer and core message of difference
Embrace The Marketing Hourglass – Look at every potential prospect and customer touchpoint and design a remarkable experience
Adopt the publishing model. – Commit to producing content that builds trust and educates
Create a total web presence. – Develop a plan that takes advantage of the SEO and social media aspects of being found
Orchestrate the lead generation trio. – Use technology to create multiple ways to generate leads via advertising, public relations, and referrals
Drive a lead conversion system. – Develop a sales system that everyone in the organization can use from initial contact to results review
Live by the marketing calendar. – Make marketing a habit by establishing monthly, weekly and daily action steps

I outlined each step in detail for this week’s AMEX OPENForum post – Read the entire article here – 7 Steps to Creating a Sure-Fire Marketing System

View full post on Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

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Read Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Before You Call Customer Service

Oct 31st

Posted by Home Wealth Project in Business Trends

Read Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Before You Call Customer Service

Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us Who’s got a bad customer service experience story? If we were all in a giant room, I’m sure everyone’s hands would go up at that question. In fact, we could probably regale each other with numerous stories of rude, stupid and just plain bad customer service behavior. So, why has customer service on the phone become such an ordeal for everyone?

That’s what Emily Yellin, the author of Your Call is (Not That) Important to Us, wanted to know. Her intention was to research what was going on at call centers so that she could “demystify the current maze of aggravation” for herself and the rest of us.

As it turns out, the corporations and the call centers are not conspiring against us. In fact, they are just as frustrated with the current state of customer service as we are. And this is what makes Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us such an interesting read.

A little background on the book

I received a review copy recently, but the book was actually published in 2009. The review copy was for an updated 2010 paperback version. Customer service call centers can be found all over the world, and rather than speaking broadly about customer call centers, Emily focuses on two emerging locations, Latin America and Africa. This was interesting to me–I had no idea that call centers were expanding to these two areas.

Another interesting update to the paperback edition is a new chapter on Twitter. Social media has been a thorn in some companies’ sides – just ask Comcast! The company has had to spend millions doing the damage control after a few unhappy customers created videos, web sites and general complaints that went viral with social media. Since then, they’ve hired Frank Eliason, who enlisted employees to monitor mentions of Comcast’s name and address them online. They created @ComcastCares, and soon customers learned that they actually got better service if they Tweeted their problem than if they called. This is an interesting trend.

Your Call will make you smile with satisfaction

Yellin really knows how to weave a story. I enjoyed the beginning chapters where she puts our relationship with the telephone in context with a little historical perspective that, of course, starts with Alexander Graham Bell, the early days of AT&T and what was called “the operator problem.” You see, the first call center operators were boys. The problem was that these boys were yelling, screaming and swearing at the customers! To solve the problem, call centers transitioned to using women as operators. As this shows, customer service hasn’t gotten worse – there have been issues from the start. It’s how we deal and interact with technology and each other that makes the difference.

After this history, Yellin shares wonderful examples of bad customer service and the insane tactics that customers use to be heard. I found myself smiling with sweet revenge and wishing I had been so creative with my dissatisfaction.

One of my favorite chapters was “To Send Us Your Firstborn, Please Press or Say “One.” This chapter is filled with hilarious examples of automated attendants. There’s IKEA’s Anna, which is an automated chat system. It was entertaining to read about – but even more entertaining to head over to the Web site and talk to Anna myself.

Then there is the story of “Amtrak Julie,” Amtrak’s automated phone system that’s gotten rave reviews from customers and the ultimate compliment by being featured on “Saturday Night Live.” Here is asnippet of the SNL skit featuring Jon Hader (Napoleon Dynamite) and Amtrack Julie on a date:

Hader: Um…what do you think Julie? A latte or a cappuccino, or something?

Julie: Did you say latte? Or Cappuccino?

Hader: Uh..well, I said both. Do you want a latte or cappuccino?

Julie: My mistake. Cappuccino would be great.

Julie (interjecting): Before we go any further, let me get some information.

Hader: Sure.

Julie: Please say your age……I think you said 19. Did I get that right?

Hader: No. Twenty-nine.

Julie: I think you said nine. Did I get that right?

This was a fun and educational chapter about the advantages and disadvantages of choosing and using automated attendants.

What I liked about the book

Your Call is both entertaining and educational. Each chapter takes you through aspects of call center customer service, explains the background and context, outlines good stories and bad experiences, and then leaves you to make your own decision based on what you’ve read.

I really liked Yellin’s tone as well. She wrote as a journalist, not as an evaluator. This was especially effective because the book is so full of customer complaints that if she had taken a point of view, the reader would become more focused on her opinion than on the circumstances and the lesson.

My only peeve about this book is that it contains yet another reference to Zappos. This is not a slight on Zappos or the author. Being included as a great customer service example in yet another business book deserves kudos. But it would be nice to see another company as an example for a change. Isn’t there any other contemporary company doing it right?

Read this before you call customer service

We’re all somebody’s customer, and one benefit Your Call provides us as consumers is a little insight into what happens behind the scenes at a call center. On the surface, it should be easy. And if Zappos has figured it out, what’s stopping the rest of them?

Read this book and get some ideas about how customer service can be improved. You can follow Emily Yellin on Twitter or visit her Web site Emily Yellin.

From Small Business Trends

View full post on Small Business News, Tips, Advice – Small Business Trends

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Important Facets to Business Branding

Oct 26th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in 2478

Businesses can be branded by many different things, or they can be branded primarily by one and secondarily by others. When it comes down to it, what truly brands your business? Is it what you say, and your public actions? Or is it your online presence?

With the way the world is shifting often times your online presence is much more important than anything else.

If someone walks in your store, they might immediately go home and look up your website to see what they might have missed. They then might move to look for your Twitter account, so they can follow you and see if you’re offering specials and discounts. THEN, they will probably try to see if you have a Facebook fan page. It’s true.

So what can you do to make sure you’re branding your business efficiently?

Twitter

If you have a Twitter account, make sure you’re using a company branded background.

This not only gives the user the complete experience when they explore your Twitter page, but it just clues them in that you have somebody taking care of, and maintaining, your Twitter page. It might also push them to interact with you, and you ultimately want customer engagement on platforms like this, so you can effectively communicate and share messages.

You can either hire an internal social media strategist to handle anything in relation to:

Provide customer service- assist by replying to any mentions or DMs
Watch trending topics among different sectors related to Best Buy’s products
Engage with consumers

This way you have a strong interactive brand on Twitter.

Website/Blog & Themes

Depending on what type of business you are, you want to have a website and/or blog that’s constantly updated with either sales or content.

If you’re a retail store, such as best buy, you want to make sure that your website is branded the same as your social media pages.

Some brands even decide to keep a blog separate from their site, and design it differently. You’ll notice that the blog for Starbucks is branded a little differently and lighter than their regular store site:

Branding and coloring works perfectly in both of these cases. If you’re a business that doesn’t necessarily have a store front, and isn’t tied to any particular color scheme, you can start up a WordPress blog (through .org – the WordPress.com site doesn’t give you many options for themes) and get a calm and clean theme to give your blog the appearance of simplicity.

Here’s some examples of some clean and simple WordPress themes for businesses:

Corporate Theme ($59.99)

Widget ready and two column, this premium theme has a dark background that isn’t flashy or distracting.

Source/Demo | Purchase

Business Turnkey Theme (Free)

The Business Turnkey theme comes in both this black simplistic theme as well as one with a lighter blue and white scheme. It’s two column and widget ready.

Demo | Download | Video

Unstandard WordPress Theme

The Unstandard WordPress theme has a different layout and the ability to have medium sized thumbnails for each post, as well as one main image that you can rotate out. This would be more ideal for photography or very image oriented businesses, rather than a small or corporate business.

Demo | Download | Video

All of these themes are of course plugin ready, so you’ll be able to add things such as TweetMeMe, Facebook fan page boxes, custom comment plugins, etc. for total engagement with your consumers.

Facebook Fan Page

Many people overlook the power of a fan page, mainly because Facebook was originally intended for college students and hasn’t only recently been widely accepted as a great marketing platform.

Having not only a branded fan page, but one that has interactive tabs and applications, is the key to branding yourself on this platform.

You’ll notice that they not only went through and had custom tabs (applications) made, but they also allow the consumers to check out their weekly ads and invite them to also ask their friends about what they’re looking for.

Again, you can can hire a social media strategist or keep one in-house to manage this. To make sure your brand isn’t tarnished, they can:

provide customer service and reply to messages and private messages
delete any slanderous or unnecessarily negative posts
offer special incentives for fans

If you want to truly brand your business, there’s many facets you need to take in consideration; whether that be your social presence, your business site (or retail site) presence and your blog presence. Keeping everything updating constantly, as well as cohesive and clean, will help solidify and strengthen your brand.

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Branding, business, Facets, Important

Why Marketing Skills are Very Important in Online Entrepreneurship

Oct 9th

Posted by Home Wealth Project in General