How To Start A Successful Online Business

Whether you’re looking to get away from the 9-5 grind or earn a part-time income to supplement your salary, starting an online business can be extremely rewarding. Unlike brick-and-mortar businesses that require heavy capital investments upfront, business ideas such as a new blog concept or offering freelance services are relatively cheap and easy to build. Here are 5 essential steps to Start A Successful Online Business.

1. Build A Blog or Website

It isn’t the 90s or early 2000s where a blog was optional. If you want to establish credibility for any business, you have to build a blog. And fortunately for non-technical business owners, a blog no longer requires HTML, CSS, PHP, or an in-depth knowledge of any coding language.

Enter WordPress – the most popular blogging software in the world. In fact, your very own Small Business Can is built on it and see how professional it looks! There are dozens of great tutorials and guides that can teach you how to start a blog online.

2. Content Marketing

Content marketing refers to the concept of creating valuable, interesting content for your visitors as a means of indirectly marketing your products or services. Content marketing serves multiple purposes, but the following are the biggest benefits:

  • Developing trust. Publishing quality content allows you to demonstrate your expertise and credibility without being arrogant or making the hard-sell. By addressing their concerns through “how-to” guides, readers and potential customers begin to trust your industry knowledge and insights.
  • Build exposure. It’s hard to get people to link to or visit your website if all you are trying to do is sell them something. Why should other bloggers send their hard-earned traffic to your blog so you can make money? If they do, it’s called advertising and they will charge you. However, if you have unique content that might prove valuable to their readers, it is in their best interest, as an expert in their industry, to be aware of helpful publications.
  • SEO benefits. If you don’t already know, aside from cold-hard cash, links are the biggest online currency because search engines like Google use them as editorial votes to rank web pages. As you build your website’s credibility through links, you eventually start to earn organic search engine traffic from relevant keywords. For example, if you write a very high quality blog post on “How To Invest For Retirement”, you may end up ranking for the term “Investing For Retirement”, which is searched 720 times per month world-wide in on Google. As your rankings improve, a majority of those visitors may end up visiting your site.

3. Leverage Social Media

Social media is a great equalizer in the sense that anyone can become an overnight “celebrity” with the right Tweet, Share, or Pin. Due to the growing popular and user levels on social platforms, this free traffic source is difficult to ignore. However, bloggers and business owners must know where to find their target demographic.

For instance, LinkedIn might be best if your business targets professionals and a B2B audience. Instagram and Pinterest are great for image-friendly blogs, especially catering to women. Facebook is usually best for B2C niches and Twitter is ideal for news and current events.

Knowing where to invest your energy and resource is critical to reaching your best potential customers.

4. Be Consistent and Patient

Forget the Dot Com millionaires who enjoyed overnight success – those days are long gone. Making money online is just as competitive, if not more competitive, then any other industry given that the barriers-to-entry are exceptionally low. Nonetheless, there is still room for new success stories and bloggers looking to build an empire.

You just need to stay consistent and expect your online business to be a long-term investment of your time and energy. If you are doing something special and unique, you will eventually be noticed. Like anything else in life, the things worth doing take time to develop into something great.

5. Be Creative and Take Risks

When people think of innovation, they think of big technologies companies coming up with revolutionary ideas and concepts. But as a small business owner online, you have an opportunity to do something creative as well. Analyzing your competitors and copying their content or offerings will not get you noticed.

Instead, you can change an industry model to challenge established business practices, take a controversial, yet enlightened stance on a public issue, provide the absolute best quality services and products in an industry, etc.

Whatever you end up doing, always strive to be proud of what you’re building. The passion, determination, and goodwill will become apparent to your loyal readers and customers.

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What is it Like to Win the Business Achievers Awards: Ronan Clarke, Smarter Surfaces

We talk to former winners of the Ulster Bank Business Achievers Awards to learn more about how winning the award has impacted their businesses.

In this post we speak to Ronan Clarke of Smarter Surfaces.

Remember, the closing date to enter the awards is Friday 25th September 2015. You can enter your business here.

What was your start-up day?
We started trading June 1st 2012, although we spend two and half years prior on R&D, to develop the first of our products, Smart Wall Paint White.

What motivates you?
Achieving our goals, when we hear from customers in different countries telling us how the products we make here in Ireland are impacting their organisations. Seeing how our team has grown and developed.

What keeps you up at night?
Denise and I as business partners are constantly discussing things like “are we missing something here…….. Are we making the right strategic decisions”

What’s been the most surprising part of running the business?
The international growth for us has been great now in over 35 countries on 5 continents. We are often surprised at the far-flung locations where our orders and partners come from.

Ronan Clarke, Smarter Surfaces, http://www.smartersurfaces.ie

Ronan Clarke, Smarter Surfaces

 

What’s been the most challenging for you?
We have a team of great of people that are so committed but it’s been a challenge getting it right as the business evolves.

We consider our distributors as part of our family and we put a lot of time into these long-term relationships. We are dealing with a lot of different cultures, these relationships take nurturing.

And the most rewarding?
The wins – whether that’s a new distributor, a win for one of our distributors, a great sale or a product breakthrough on the R&D side.

What is one mistake you’ve made, and what did you learn from it?
We made a couple of poor distributor choices in the early days and it took some time to correct those.

What are some of the characteristics of people that have been successful at your company?
We are an entrepreneurial company and it’s very fast moving so the people that excel here are motivated, smart and able to adapt. It’s an enjoyable place to work but the pace is not for everyone.

What are you most excited about for the future?
As a management team, for us it’s all about scaling. We get a buzz from identifying the potential opportunities, whether that’s a market or a product and making it happen.

Any amazing families, partners, and friends behind the scenes you’d like to thank – how did they support you in the early days?
When Denise Doran came on board as a shareholder and director working alongside me, it changed the business completely. She brought global corporate experience whilst I was at incubator stage and this has had a huge impact on transforming the business.

What doors has winning the Business Achievers Awards opened for you?
We have had great positive feedback from people after winning the Business Achievers Award not just here in Ireland but also abroad, particularly from the Irish Business Community internationally.

What was the biggest benefit for you winning this award?
There are many benefits. From increased confidence within our team to recognition globally which helps our partners know they are working with an award-winning company and contributes to new distributors choosing to work with us. It’s also a milestone for us to move onto our next ambitious goal. So in summary, so many benefits.

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How Tech Companies are Disrupting the Auto Industry

n 1956, GM released a video entitled, Keys to the Future, that boldly predicted driverless cars in 1976. Although it is nearly 40 years later, driverless cars are being tested and will soon be disrupting the auto industry and transforming our society as we know it. While GM made this bold prediction of the future of cars, it was not until the tech world branched out, created the Internet of Things that they became involved with car manufacturers. In creating Smart Cars, the GM vision will soon become a a reality.

Tech companies pairing up with car companies

While Google has spent the past year openly working with Lexus in creating an autonomous car, other tech companies have also been working with car manufacturers. For example, Swedish tech giant Ericsson has been working with Volvo on their award winning innovation. By using integrated cloud based applications for navigation and music streaming, they are already taking their cutting edge technology and incorporating it into Volvo cars. There is a lot of speculation that Apple is getting into the Smart Car market, yet the rumors of pairing up with BMW have been unfounded. Until Apple partners up, their apps will be used but they will not be in the Smart Car market.

Cost of owning a car

Currently, Smart Car technology, led by tech companies, is infiltrating the latest vehicles. Eventually, these driverless cars will change what we pay for a vehicle. The early driverless cars will be a bit like a taxi service or car sharing. There will be an app on your Smartphone to call for transportation. Responding to that app will be fleets providing mobility services for anyone who needs to go from point A to point B. Those who own their own vehicle, and not use the self driving option, will possibly have different online insurance quotes than those who are driving the Smart Car.

Car design

As the function and user experience of vehicles will be changing and evolving, technology will influence the design of Smart Cars and this will continue to evolve. As passengers will be traversing in Smart Cities, the need for a vehicle that moves at high speeds will be diminished. Thus, the design of vehicles will reflect the need for shorter, slower city journeys. Electric driving cars will be essential to creating a driverless city. In addition, with the advancements of Graphene and other materials that could make vehicles lighter. Most of all, fuel types could potential change with Smart Cars.

Parking

How tech companies upgrade self-parking functions will determine the ease in which the Smart Car will park. As sensor data improves, parking will be faster and smoother.

Safety

As utopian as driverless cars may seem, this technology has quickly evolved, and is estimated to be available to everyone in the next three to five years. Perhaps the biggest anticipation is how safe driverless cars have become. After millions of miles of testing, the only driverless car accidents that have occurred when vehicles, driven by humans, have run into the driverless cars and caused the crash. Because there will no longer be drivers, only passengers, this will take away the bad decisions, the emotion, and the occasional aggression associated with driving.

In addition, some vehicle manufacturers, such as Volvo have also worked on technology that would prevent accidents between cars and bicycles. Not only will automobile to automobile crashes be eliminated, but automobile to bicycle vehicles will be eliminated.

Environment

With less vehicles crowding the road, and as technology companies transform the design of vehicles that will be lighter and more capable of using alternate, cleaner energy, this will improve air quality. In fact, Google Smart Cars have been quietly testing the environment by using air quality detectors in some of the Smart Cars.

With fewer vehicles crowding the road, and as the design of vehicles will be lighter and more capable of using alternate, cleaner energy, this will improve air quality. Most of all, these types of fuel could potential change with vehicles as well. Electric driving cars could be essential to creating a driverless city, but other clean technologies may become more practical.

Soon, your car will be connected to everything with sensors. Drivers will relax as the car safely drives them to their destination. We have tech companies to thank for this. They give automobile manufacturers the ability to realize their dreams.

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10 Must Know Tips for Selling your Startup

Your business is likely your baby: you’ve nurtured it, cared for it and experienced sleepless nights, early mornings and late nights in an effort to build a viable business. So it’s then only right that when you come to sell your business that you secure both a fair price, as well as the reassurance that the person or company that you’re selling to will take your carefully grown business forward. So here we take a look at seven savvy, must know tips for selling your Startup business and paying the process the due diligence that it commands.

  1. Show sellers your most promising figures

When selling your business you’ll need to provide a comprehensive set of figures that cover everything from profits through to revenue and onto costs. What’s key to grabbing attention however is to highlight the most promising of these figures to demonstrate just what your business has achieved. You may want to speak with an accountant in order to achieve this whilst still maintaining transparency throughout your figures.  Here are some good tips.

  1. Be sure to highlight the transferability of the business

Potential buyers will want to know that your business will operate as it should when and if it comes under their care. So always be sure to explain any training or support you’ll provide.

You should also highlight your marketing efforts and the ways in which you establish leads, sales and, consequently, ongoing revenue.

  1. Be prepared

Being prepared to sell is half the battle of selling, particularly when there is so much information to present and so many figures to gather. Generally speaking you should ideally want to begin preparations for a sale 12 months before hand (although this will, of course, differ depending upon the size of your business, your industry type and the number of due diligence tasks to be undertaken) according to Aperio Intelligence.

  1. Demonstrate your growth consistency

A company that can demonstrate revenue that promises to grow consistently, rather than revenue that merely manages a constant plateau, is always going to be of the most attractive proposition. So be sure to highlight figures that demonstrate your growth and back them up with a growth plan for buyers so that they can see the tangible steps required for continuing in your successful footsteps.

  1. Appreciate the pace of acquisition

Buyers want to know that should they decide to forge ahead with the purchase of your business that the transition will move swiftly. So be sure to highlight your readiness to sell and have an idea of the practicalities to cover the transfer of business along with the associated estimated timescales.

  1. Understand the importance of expert input

Selling a business is a legal process and one that can demand a range of specialist skills, from that of an accountant, right through to a solicitor. However it can be all too easy to become bogged down with expert input, from those that may advise on preparing for acquisition right through to marketing guidance. So choose carefully and appreciate the areas where you truly need an outside helping hand. Here are some legal tips.

  1. Undertake an overhead review

Considering your monthly costings and attempting to drive them down will make your business both more attractive as well as financially more robust. So comprehensively review all of your outgoings and operational costs.

  1. Be prepared to safeguard your intellectual property

Are your products or services adequately protected? If you’re unsure then it may be worth seeking out legal advice, particularly if you work within the realm of technology (or use it as a key differentiator) where protection can be a decidedly tricky business.

  1. Consider the sale of your business as a whole new marketing effort

Just as you’ve marketed your products or services now is the time to market your business. Of course the exact tact that you adopt will depend upon your business and industry type, however generally speaking there will be an online platform out there to advertise your business as on the market, which should serve as your first step towards sale. Beyond this you should perfect your business information pack and be prepared for plenty of inquiries, questions and queries.

  1. And finally… consider the timing of your sale

Before moving ahead with the sale of your business it is worth considering whether now is the right time to sell or whether, given 12 months, you could grow your business figures to boost your sale value.

These 10 tips will make selling your start up a lot easier and ensure you get the best possible deal.

 

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How to Advertise your Brand on a Budget

Small businesses have a need for powerful advertising as much as any other business.

Exhibition stands have the power to enhance your image and make yourself visible to your target audience. Aside from introducing your products and services in an eye-catching and memorable way, smart exhibition stands can also help to generate sales leads.

Using exhibition stands

Whether it’s trade shows, shop stands or pop-up displays, Display advertising (phyiscally) is often a very effective route. Assuming you’ve hand-picked the right marketing events and conventions to engage your target audience that is. I also recommend you check out expressexhibitiondisplays.co.uk’s cheap exhibitions stands, they’re the price leader when it comes to quality display gear, definitely an  excellent way to secure powerful advertising for your brand on a budget.

  • Trade shows

Trade shows offer a perfect opportunity to advertise your brand using attractive exhibition stands that don’t have to blow your budget. You can easily create a display that

Trade shows can be a very powerful marketing medium due to the fact that they bring thousands of potential customers directly to you. Consider what trade shows may be worth attending in your industry, and request media kits for each show so you can decide if it’s right for your brand.

Above all else, trade shows are a fantastic way to keep up with competitors and get your name out in circulation. It doesn’t have to cost the earth to get a fantastic display. Simply opt for a tablecloth and accessories that represent your brand’s image or match your brand’s colours, and this will help your exhibition stand to pop.

  • Pop-up displays

Another great way to make use of exhibition stands is pop-up displays. Whether on the street or in a shopping mall, brightly coloured and exciting displays attract immediate attention without the need for a big budget.

Consider implementing an interactive element in your display, such as a video playing on a loop, or a short PowerPoint presentation, which is something you can also promote on your social media channels. Less is more in this regard, so make sure that you use short, sharp bursts of text and colour. You don’t want to overload your audience with information, you just want your brand’s image to shine through and be memorable.

It’s a good idea to include pictures, bright colours and a snappy slogan – this makes your display easy to digest as potential customers are passing by.

  • Promoting your brand

An exhibition stand is fantastic when it comes to grabbing attention, but what to do once you have the attention you want? It’s important to be able to follow up on this by giving your potential customers something that will ensure they keep you in mind.

Promotional material such as flyers, business cards and even pens don’t cost much to produce and give you something to hand out to people who stop by your stand. Consider fun giveaway items too, such as magnets, postcards or even sweets. Anything that ensures your brand is remembered is positive.

Overall, you don’t need to spend a fortune to advertise your brand and ensure it stands out. The right exhibition display can be a powerful tool to help launch your brand and make it stick in the mind of the consumer.

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PR Metrics You Need to Share with your Team

The PR metrics that you should consider sharing with your team are based on the objectives of your business. PR is a tool for communication designed to help you meet your business objectives. Within PR, spending a significant amount of time on tracking metrics is necessary in order to communicate the value of this function.

Determining Metrics

  • Revenue is among the top metrics that require close monitoring along with others that can help you reach your full potential. When you measure PR efforts in an accurate and efficient manner, you are in a better position to link them directly to how your customers behave.
  • Technological advancements have made it easier for PR professionals to capture PR metrics that add value.
  • When considering which PR metrics to share, it is important to understand why PR is taking place. PR is an investment typically made to address the need to make your audience do something or react in a certain way.
  • Desired actions from customers range from making purchases to filling out forms. You may also want them to distribute your content or go to your site for information. Such activities will help you determine which PR metrics will be most valuable for you and your team. The metrics should have poor definition in order for you to be able to gauge the success of your business.

Revenue

  • Revenue is a value and data driven metric that needs to be visible. It is important for you to determine how you can stimulate growth that will lead to an increase in revenue. For businesses that engage in ecommerce, various campaigns can be useful to drive sales.
  • If you operate an online business, aspects such as content, social media and emails are essential. These efforts need measuring to find out the number of leads and conversions generated.
  • Online resources are available to help you know where your traffic is coming from as well as the likelihood of conversions. Invest in the resources that you need to monitor your public relations efforts and note how much revenue the business earns.

Sales Conversions and Leads

Some PR strategies focus on converting site visits into sales opportunities. PR campaigns have the potential to create an increase in sales conversions and leads. PR aim at showcasing brands positively and conveying the company’s area of expertise. Measuring leads is a good metric for PR efforts.

Mentions

Mentions indicate how many times your brand has had a referral it within a specified period. While some PR professionals may be skeptical about the value of mentions, the reality is that the number of mentions helps you know how effective your communication has been among influencers.

The impact of your activities on how often your brand gets a mention or trends is a useful way to track your PR results. It helps you understand how successful your messages are in comparison to your competitors.

Audience

Audience is an important metric that shows you how many people link to your brand. People such as visitors to your site, followers on social media platforms and subscribers to your blog let you know if you are on the right track. Monitoring the growth of your audience enables you to know if you are using the right strategies.

ROI

Return on investment or ROI is a valuable metric when determining PR success. It can often be challenging to calculate but it is necessary for establishing how PR benefits translate into business profits.  Analytics software is usually the best way to keep track of ROI related metrics and measure PR effectiveness.   Some PR platforms have built in reporting or analytics sections where data for such ROI calculations can be extracted.  Other standalone analytics platforms such as PanXpan have specific modules that allow for ROI and PR effectiveness to be tracked.  ROI can be tracked through measures such as CPM (cost per thousand reached), cost per conversion or the cost to generate a dollar in revenue.

Impressions

Impressions on social media are readily quantifiable when measuring how successful a PR campaign is. Links to websites and social media pages make it possible for users to interact regularly. This type of interaction provides PR professionals with the chance to measure their efforts in a timely and precise manner.

Impressions give insight into the number of times users view a particular message. They are important because they can create awareness.

Remember to Share

After defining your metrics and investing in the tools you need to measure them, it is important to share them with your team. Make sure that the set metrics are manageable and will add value to your organization. Metrics are a useful component of the learning process within an organization.

Communicate with other members of the team about the progress made. Progress should undergo regular review while sharing different experiences and challenges along the way.

 

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Looking For Your Company’s Data Analyst? Here’s What You Need To Know

Data analysts, or more fancily called as data scientists nowadays, have become essential people to have in expanding businesses. Despite that, the employment rate growth for this occupation is rather slower compared to other office-related jobs. However, they are one of the few who enjoy handsome salaries. And unlike other office personnel, data analysts usually dictate the future of the companies they serve.

The job of a data analyst is to assess, organize, and gather data from different resources. They use the data to formulate useful and possibly important information. Mostly, data analysts are involved in product research and development, and market trends and conditions analyses.

A data analyst candidate must have a four-year university degree related to computer science, business administration, math, and statistics. They need to be knowledgeable of statistics, data management, computer science, and data analysis tools and software applications such as Microsoft Excel and Tableau on Hadoop.

In addition, the candidate must be familiar with the most common data format types such as XML, JSON, and RDF. To some extent, he or she must be familiar with using programming languages in order to create data analysis solutions of his or her own and improve the functionality of the data solutions that you use.

Translating data into layman’s terms

The candidate must be an expert when it comes to translating data and information in layman’s terms. He or she must know the easiest and fastest ways of distributing important information. He or she must be an expert when it comes to creating and interpreting graphs, data mashups, scorecards, and dashboards.

When it comes to skills, data analysts must be detailed-oriented; if possible, they must be a bit critical. Of course, mastery of intermediate mathematics is mandatory. In large-scale companies and systems, a data analyst must be also capable of handling databases, employing data management concepts, and troubleshooting database structure problems.

On the other hand, people who have experience as operations research analysts and market research analysts are good candidates to apply for data analyst jobs.

When hiring a data analyst candidate, one of the most important questions that you should put on the table is how many data management applications the candidate knows and has used. Do they know some of the few most used applications in data analysis such as Spark and Tableau on Hadoop? Do they even know how to take advantage of scripting languages such as Python to manipulate and handle huge streams of data?

Data gathering and management

Unlike before when casual data analyses for businesses were done with pen and paper (and with little input to a computer), data analyses now happen inside the analyst’s computer. The massive influx of data that companies receive every day has caused analysts to rely on automated data gathering and management software programs.

Alternatively, the candidate must be capable of sorting out the data and creating quick decisions on whether a piece or set of data is useless or useful. After all, before the analysis of data starts, it is essential that the analyst have the right data at hand.

Aside from that, it is important that you measure the candidate’s logical and creative aptitude. The most common test to measure a candidate’s thinking skills is asking them how much marbles are inside a jar. The number of marbles does not matter first. What’s important is the methodologies the job candidate used to come up with the answer, the considerations he or she included, and the confidence he or she has with his explanations. And just for fun, you might want to ask what is the next winning lottery number combination.

If all the candidates were able to impress you with their answers and their background, then it will be up to the final test. The final test is to know how much information they have in your company and the nature of your business. That will be the decisive factor if the candidate is fit to have the job.

Picking the right candidate for the job is crucial. After all, you will be entrusting the future of your company or department to that person. Data analysts are the ones that can help you move your businesses upward. They can solve internal and external business problems and even identify them before they happen. You can also get your analyst to help you figure out your business if you do not know what is going on in or with it.

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InterTradeIreland Q2 Business Monitor: 83% of Firms Stable or Growing

InterTradeIreland’s Q2 Business Monitor Report: 83% of firms across the island either stable or growing as all-island recovery continues but at a slower pace.

Recovery continues

InterTradeIreland’s latest quarterly Business Monitor (April – June 2015) has highlighted that 83% of businesses on both sides of the border are either stable or growing, which is down five percentage points from Q1. It also reflects that firms are continuing to experience recovery across the island, albeit at a slower pace than in recent quarters.

Northern Ireland firms in growth mode catching up with Ireland

Over the last few quarters, businesses in Ireland were clearly outperforming local NI firms but figures from the Q2 report indicated more of a convergence between the two jurisdictions, with 40 per cent of firms in the Republic in growth mode compared to 36 per cent of businesses in Northern Ireland.

Larger firms driving recovery

Recovery is in place for the majority of firms, but this is happening relatively slowly with less forward motion shown this quarter. InterTradeIreland took the opportunity with the Q2 report to look at what type of firms are driving growth and what they are doing differently or better. Although moderate to rapid growth was found in businesses of all sizes, types and sectors, it was especially prevalent among larger firms.

Exporting and innovation important factors

The report confirmed that those firms that are exporting and those who take a more strategic approach to growth, such as having a formal business plan in place, were more successful. It was shown that three-quarters of moderate to rapid growth firms introduced new or improved products or services and 62 per cent implemented new processes, machinery, equipment or tools, showing that businesses that are innovating and doing things differently are three times more likely to grow.

Excellence in innovation processes, culture and skills is at the core of rapidly growing firms with these businesses more likely to have dedicated R&D staff and a more formal process in place for managing innovation than non-growth firms.

More than half of firms have the ambition to expand

53% of non-growth firms share the ambition to expand, but need support from agencies such as InterTradeIreland to help them take advantage of cross border opportunities allowing them to overcome specific capability deficiencies in areas identified by the study and translate that ambition into reality.

It is vital that business momentum picks up more quickly if the Executive is to achieve its economic objective of rebalancing the economy. However, when you look back to this time two years ago, progress has definitely been made with only 64 per cent of businesses stable and growing back in Q2 2013.

InterTradeIreland’s Business Monitor

InterTradeIreland’s quarterly Business Monitor survey is the largest and most comprehensive business survey on the island and is based on the views of more than 750 business managers across Northern Ireland and Ireland. It differs from other surveys in that it is seen to be the ‘voice of local businesses’ feeding directly from telephone interviews conducted with a robust sample of firms of all sizes across a range of sectors to track all-island economic indicators such as sales, employment, business outlook and other specific topical research areas on a quarter by quarter basis.

Further information

For more information on InterTradeIreland and their business support programmes, please visit www.intertradeireland.com.

A video and copy of the 2015 Q2 InterTradeIreland Business Monitor Executive Summary can be viewed here.

Post by Aidan Gough, Strategy and Policy Director at InterTradeIreland

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3 Golden Rules of Developing Customer Loyalty on a Tight Budget

Every company clearly benefits from customer loyalty. However, your business may not have the millions of dollars that the leaders in your industry have to put towards endless layers of advertising to attract those customers. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can develop customer loyalty on a tight budget. Here are some of the top ways.

1 – Respond more quickly to customer queries than anyone in your industry

Social media, citation aggregation software and customer management software give you the ability to access everything that your customers say about you almost in real time. Never before have businesses been blessed with the ability to not only sell across oceans, but provide customer service across those same oceans without spending a great deal of money.

Nine out of every 10 people believe that companies have a responsibility to answer queries on Facebook. However, only one in four businesses actually does this. Is it any wonder that customer loyalty has dropped in the past 20 years? Use all of the information that have on your customers to create a great customer experience for each of them. From this kind of service, your business will certainly build and maintain more customer loyalty.

2 – Get to know your best customers

The Pareto rule, or the 80/20 rule of buying and selling, says that 80 percent of your sales will come from 20 percent of your customers. These 20 percent of customers are the ones who are most likely to become loyal if given the chance. However, you should know never to take anything for granted in the modern business landscape.

In order to convert the customers who are supposed to become loyal to your company, you need a consistent and wide-open two-way line of communication. This can be created through social media very easily; however, there is another level to this endeavor. Your loyal customers deserve personalized service, and no matter how small your budget may be, you can definitely afford to give it to them. Maintaining a customer costs a business around 15 percent of what it takes to build a relationship with a brand-new customer.

Hold events and contests for your best customers. If you are having a sale, incorporate location-based technology and opt in demographic lists so that your best customers truly have the first opportunity to take you up on your offers.

3 – Create programs that naturally develop customer loyalty

The first program that you can incorporate into your business is a product that requires customer loyalty. If you constantly have iterations and improvements on your product, then people will be inclined to come back for more. This is one of the basic tenants of the automobile industry – the best brands are the ones that are always announcing new features for next year’s model. For instance, if you have a product that requires listening, incorporating closed captioning services into the product is a great way to engender customer loyalty.

Aside from having products that are consistently being improved, you can also create programs that will help to engage your customer base. For instance, getting involved in the communities of your good customers is a great way to keep them engaged with your business. This does not have to be a physical location; it can very easily be an online community as well. This is why message boards and niche forums are actually more important for a small business than the major three search engines.

If your business gets involved with a charity, this is another way to ensure that you will always have customers will rally to your cause. Even if you end up giving a great deal of money away, you must consider that you would not have brought in this money if you did not have the offer in the first place. In many cases, doing business with a charity ends up being more profitable for both ends. Never mistake the nonprofit industry for an unprofitable industry – there is definitely a great deal of money being made that you can pick up on.

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Using Social Content to Build Brand

When it comes to building brand, nothing is more effective than customer satisfaction. There was a time before the world of digital communications when it was referred to as ‘word of mouth’ advertising. This was the very best way for businesses to establish trust, an integral aspect of brand. In today’s culture, word of mouth advertising is still alive and well but has just taken on another form – social media. Now we rely on social media to spread the word about our likes and dislikes and this is why the intelligent marketing campaign will tap into the power of such networks as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as well as Google+.

Why Trust Is Important

With an ever-growing number of businesses popping up each day and the ease at which consumers can switch back and forth between one brand and another, it is imperative to build a solid relationship with our customers. Relationships are built on trust, pure and simple. If you want to build and grow a solid customer base, the first thing you should be looking to do is instill trust in your products, services and even in your own reputation as a business.

Using Social Content to Instill Trust

People are social creatures so we tend to form bonds with others of like minds. Many of us have online friends and followers to our social sites numbering in the hundreds. We share and post about literally every aspect of our lives from foods that we eat to experiences we’ve had with companies we have dealt with. When looking to instil trust in a company’s brand, it would be nice to capture all those things that are being tweeted about, and posted on, in relation to our products and services. There is actually a way to do just this.

Tools for Capturing Social Content

Just as the web crawlers make their way around the internet to find and rank content for search engines, there is now a new breed of crawlers that seek out social content. If you are trying to capture what people are saying about your products, services and even your company in general, utilising a crawler that has the ultimate goal of searching social sites is the best way to go. Not only can written content be captured but pictures and videos are sought out as well. Many products have literally gone viral due to videos posted on sites like YouTube.

Redistributing Social Content

As information is captured, social content curation pulls the best content together into one place to be redistributed. This social content is then re-published to various platforms in order to be made more visible to potential customers. It can be fed live to your website, reposted on social media hubs or even powered to big screens live, in real time, as it is hitting the Web. Never before was it so easy to capture and spread positive customer feedback which is such a vital element in building brand.

Whilst it has long been known that there is huge potential in utilising social media to build brand, it wasn’t until recently that it became possible to capture and repost all those wonderful things people are saying about our businesses. What customers say about a company is so much more effective than all the advertising we can do and why it is essential to capture and repost as much as possible. If you are not taking advantage of social content to build brand, you are missing out on one of the most effective marketing tools you could possibly use.

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