Improving customer loyalty through user experience

/in , , /by

Creating a lasting bond between a brand and its customers is important for business but, regrettably, it’s the most daunting task that any brand faces in the modern business setup. The modern customer is more enlightened in terms of the quality of products as well as the before & after sale services to expect from a brand. Companies are resulting to mobile apps and websites to improve their users’ experience online as well as high-quality products to appeal to offline shoppers. In this article, we will delve deeper into this topic and give you the five main ways of improving customer loyalty through user experience.

  1. Functioning Website

We are living in an era where customers judge brands by how technologically advanced they are. The modern client is more comfortable with brands which have invested in functional websites, through which he/she can browse through products’ list, ask questions, get real-time & satisfactory answers, and most importantly, make purchases from the comfort of his/her living rooms. Today, a brand can make its customers more loyal by improving its website’s loading page and minimizing its requirements for new subscribers or shoppers. If, for example, a new customer is able to subscribe to a service with just a single click from the brand’s website, there is a high chance that he/she will become loyal sooner than later. If, upon subscribing to a brand, he/she is able to order for products/services fast and securely, he/she is likely to convince people around him/her to subscribe as well. This form of networking and brand building has never been experienced before.

Read more

6 Businesses You Can Run from Self Storage Units

/in , , /by

If you’re running a small business from home successfully, chances are that even though you’ve chosen a dedicated space just for work, the work has taken over the whole house nonetheless. Although you try to keep your business operations enclosed in a certain area, it somehow always manages to get out, in form of products all over the house, paperwork on the sofa and materials lying around.

If this is your case, it may be time to step things up with a more professional location — like an office or other place of business. However, if you’re not in the position to take out lease and add hundreds or even thousands a month to your overhead, there is another solution. A 20 to 30 square meter storage unit can be inexpensive and give you all the space you need. Here are some businesses you can take on from self-storage units:

E-shop

If you’re selling your products online, whether through your own shop or something like Ebay, a self-storage unit is an ideal solution for your business. Not only will you have an office where you will take in your orders, you can also use it as a photo studio for your merchandise and also store it there, where it will be safe. You probably have your goods piled up all around the house so you will make room in it by storing everything in the storage unit. If you’ve considered starting an online business, make sure to get all the information before you get started and follow the numerous guides you can find online.

Second-hand

If the facility allows such activity, opening the door to your store regularly could only mean popping the lock and sliding open the doors to your new second hand shop. Records shop, bookstore, clothing store, furniture studio – whatever it is, it can be done from a self-storage unit. Choose the right unit for your business and start selling things. Your home will be grateful for taking everything out of it and making more space. You can organize your shop by buying some nice shelves and putting clothes or whatever it is you’re selling on them, nicely decorating the unit and of course, don’t forget to set up a cash register near the entrance.

Read more

How Newbies Benefit from Printed Media

/in , , /by

The modern world is always changing as we speak. New developments are always becoming a reality at an increasingly fast pace. These developments don’t only concern the field of medicine, technology, and other branches of science. The reality is, change is moving everywhere, including the world of business.

In the past, ordinary people hardly had anything to set up their business. If they had the means, maintaining a stable firm has its issues which will eventually lead to their failures. Today, with almost limited starting funds, a business could turn into an empire in no time.

Indeed, the advancements in the world have become the main contributors to this fast pace change that everyone is experiencing. In the world of business and entrepreneurship, the age of paper and printing is slowly nearing its end, while digital advertising is at the top, enjoying its prime.

A curious case for paper and printing is that they never seem to die and succumb to the changes. Despite the advantages that digital media brings, paper and ink remain relevant with business owners, especially those small and aspiring entrepreneurs. Here’s a look why printed media remains a good choice for a starting business.

Read more

Five Daily Habits You Should Have As a Business Owner

/in , , /by

The aim of every business owner is to realize meaningful success. For this to happen, it is mandatory to have a well-planned daily business routine. This article discusses some of the habits you should have as a business owner.

1. Eat Healthy, Live Healthy

Personal health is of paramount importance for as far as business owners are concerned; being unhealthy translates to workplace absenteeism and less productivity. Your health is heavily dependent on your lifestyle regarding what you eat and the body exercises you undertake. As a conscious business owner, you must always avoid being ill by eating healthy foods and exercising regularly. Avoiding sickness means zero workplace absenteeism and an eventual business success. Besides absenteeism, being unhealthy means that as much as you may be ever present at the office, you will always be less productive. Business success is hard to come along without a 100 percent focus on its day-to-day running.

2. Understand Yourself, Plan Your Day Accordingly, and Save Time

As a business owner, you stand out as the most important asset in the business; your success is your business’ success and vice versa. In that regard, it is important to understand whether you are a morning or an evening person so that you can plan well. Important business affairs ought to be handled during the time that you are most active. During these active hours, you should try as much as possible to avoid unnecessary distractions, such as emails and phone calls.

With a good plan, time-saving comes as a by-product. However, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of saving time since every second in business matters.

3. Make Networking Your Lifestyle

There is a general misconception that business networking only entails swapping business cards during business meetings. The plain truth, however, is that networking can be as basic as discussing your business in informal discussions. As an entrepreneur, it is important to seize every opportunity to talk and campaign for your business. In the course of this informal conversation, you might end up meeting potential clients or business partners.

4. Be a Risk-Taker

Risk taking best defines business. The more eager you are to take risks, the higher the chances of succeeding in business. However, it is good to divorce reckless business investments and decisions from business risk-taking. While the former may be done from the point of naivety, the latter is informed by a clear analysis of the possible causes of either success or failure.

You realize that as much being conservative in business and fearing to venture into new business leads may appear safe, it may be a bottleneck to the growth of your business. As a business owner, it is advisable to always be on the look-out for potential business opportunities and to be ready to invest in them.

5. Be a Family Person

As much as you need to focus seriously on your business, forgetting to spend quality time with your family may not be the best thing to do as a business owner. Sparing a few hours from your busy business schedule to interact with your loved one is important in that you get to refresh your mind in readiness for further business interactions.

The five habits discussed in this article are just a few of the many regular habits that you should always have as a business owner. When applied in the right way, then success is guaranteed.

———–

Brian Rees is a media relations representative for FB Solutions. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, music, and spending time outside.

 

8 Amazing Ways For SEO To Help Small Businesses

/in , , , , /by

In a world full of large scale companies competing in a cut-throat environment, a lot of small ventures get beaten by a considerable margin. From logistical capabilities, enormous financial differentials, to overall company power, a small business just cannot compete with such huge corporations.

For small time entrepreneurs, the fact stated above may discourage them from starting home-grown ventures. They think that they’ll just end up with the other businesses that get eaten up by the “Big Boys.”

However, to the few who want to wade into deep waters and test the market, an emerging strategy is beginning to take the world by storm: Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short.

Here are some advantages that SEO can bring to small time business owners.

Cost Efficiency

One of the advantages that SEO can bring is that utilizing it doesn’t have to cost too much. As with other types of businesses, finances usually have to be spent. These funds are called investments. There are a lot of services out there that can offer help when it comes to SEO ranking.

Some companies who manage SEO, they have a “no rank, no pay” policy. This system means that if a blog or site does not appear to rank, then the entrepreneur doesn’t have to pay anything to that company.

Read more

How to Defend Your Business Website from Negative SEO

/in , , /by

Even if you’ve been playing by Google’s rules, keeping up with frequent algorithm changes, you might still find yourself to be a victim of negative SEO.

How come?

You have to look over the fence into your competitor’s backyard, as they might be the ones playing it dirty, setting up traps in order to make sure you fail. By dropping out of search engine’s good graces, your company is bound to hit the bottom, what has a negative effect on your rankings, visibility, visits, and, ultimately, conversions and revenue.

What many tend to forget is that once you hit the rock bottom, the only way you can go is – up. But how?

1. Use Google Search Console alerts

Google Search Console represents extremely valuable collection of tools which include information about search traffic, search appearance, technical status update, crawl data and other educational resources. With this in mind, it is evident why it found its place in almost every website owner’s, webmaster’s and SEO professional’s toolbox.

If you’re using Google Search Console as well, then you know you can leverage it to monitor the safety of your website. It helps you detect any kind of abuse, and to react quickly to any weird activity, turn on alerts. In order to do that, go to the GSC dashboard, choose settings and then go to Preferences. There you simply enable email notifications and you’ll get alerts directly to your inbox.

Read more

How to Use Google Plus For Your Business

/in , , /by

If you’re an avid social media user, you probably have profiles created on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, all of which you use fairly regularly. What you might not realise is that you also have an account created on Google +, which is the same account that you use when you watch Youtube (if you watch while signed in).

I can’t blame you if you haven’t noticed that you have an account on this platform, as Google have done a very good job at making Google + nearly impossible to use and make sense of. Besides the constant layout changes and updates which add to the complexity of the platform, Google + has always been a very confused social media platform. Unlike other successful platforms that have clear purposes, Google + tries to do a bit of everything, which ends up creating a very muddled and ugly user experience.

However, where there is a problem there is always an opportunity, and while most people are put off by Google +, there are still millions of people actively using the platform as their main source of news and for keeping in touch with their friends, so you’d be silly to ignore Google + completely – especially if you’re a business owner.

Read more

5 Questions to Consider Before Starting Your Business

/in , /by

When considering the option of becoming self-employed, we are often focused upon the financial elements needed for successful trading. Forecasting your earning potential is an important exercise before taking the plunge into self-employment and having a contingency plan in case of failure is always recommended. However, the emotional and psychological implications of self-employment are often overlooked by potential entrepreneurs, and herein lie many of the challenges faced by new business owners.

Why do you want to do this?

The first and most important step to preparing for potential self-employment is to be completely honest with yourself. Identifying your real motivations for wanting to leave the 9-5 grind will help clarify if starting a business is right for you. If your motivations centre solely around an annoying boss or co-worker, then you need to consider if finding another job might be the best solution for you. The idea of being your own boss can be alluring, but not everybody is cut out for entrepreneurship. Self-employment often poses far more difficulties than working for an employer, and it is advisable for one to ascertain whether they are willing to make sacrifices in terms of financial security, as well as job stability, to develop a business. Taking the time to consider this question deeply will either save you a lot of trouble or help steel you for the challenges ahead.

Read more

First Steps In Launching A Successful Marketing Campaign

/in , , /by

The success of an up-and-coming startup depends heavily on the marketing approach. Before you focus all your effort into a marketing campaign, first you need to devise a proper marketing plan, complete with a system which encompasses all the marketing initiatives you need to take in order to ensure the success of said plan. Whether you’re using content marketing, e-mail marketing or a lead generation campaign, each initiative needs to have a specific plan driving its execution and guaranteeing the return of your marketing investments.

Difference between a marketing plan and marketing campaign

People who aren’t directly related to the marketing industry often confuse these two terms. A marketing plan describes the complete picture when it comes to marking your business. This includes identifying specific marketing strategies which will be used to engage the target audience and interest them in the products and services you’re offering. A marketing campaign is just a small part of the overall marketing plan and describes a particular marketing action used for achieving a particular goal or objective.

Identifying and reaching target audience

Before you define the trajectory or your campaign, first you need to think about who your target audience really is. You might be thinking “but I already know what my target audience is”, but in reality, it’s not that simple. The target audience of a marketing campaign doesn’t necessarily have to be the one purchasing your products and services. Marketing campaigns differ depending on what you’re trying to accomplish. Increasing the engagement, getting more visitors, leads or conversion all require a different approach and focus on different audiences.

Read more

8 Tips for Finding the Best Outsourcing Solution for your Business

/in , , /by

During these times of great uncertainty and the persistence of unstable global economic conditions, outsourcing remains the best solution for your business. As a process, it will help you streamline costs and maintain a degree of profitability even if business activity is slow.

But not all outsourcing partners can get the job done. It’s not just because there are unqualified service providers out there. You must also do your part to ensure the success of the outsourcing arrangement.

Here are 8 tips for finding the best outsourcing solution for your business:

  1. Research on Outsourcing

Some businesses make the mistake of jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon without doing research. They believe its benefits are automatic and immediate.

Unfortunately, they realize that like all processes, outsourcing takes time. It faces challenges and not all service providers are effective. Research opens your mind to all the possibilities. It helps you anticipate the challenges that lie ahead and develop an understanding of what to expect during the process.

In addition to online research, interview businesses that have outsourced and learn from their experiences. The more you know, the better you will be prepared to move forward with outsourcing.

Read more