“It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.” -Carl Sagan Experienced business leaders seldom recommend fostering creativity among employees. Productivity is a much more cherished trait, but it doesn’t undermine the definitive need for creativity in competitive art-led businesses such as advertising. With projects piling up, professionals and small business owners might start to feel drained. However, this hit is only temporary. All you need to do is to recharge your creative batteries — which isn’t that tough. Intrigued? Here’re a few simple, yet effective ideas to help you gain your creative muse back. Break the Monotony No matter how creative your work is, it can become monotonous in no time for multiple reasons. Monotony is the chief culprit behind creativity drying up. It’s only human nature to get habitual and follow a specific routine as it spells convenience and … Read More
5 Habits to Build When Promoting Your Business’s Social Media Page
Building a name for your business online takes work, but a strong presence on social media is key to success in 2017. Local businesses and mega corporations alike have harnessed the web and turned today’s biggest platforms to their advantage. Now, you can do the same for your own company. Implement these five strategies into your business’s web routine and you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can grow your following, boost engagement and promote your business. 1. Follow a Schedule A lot of businesses tend to post whenever they have something to say, but this isn’t the best way to go about handling social media. Instead, you want to follow a set schedule. Not only does this make it easier for you to plan content, but you will also be able to post at the right times for your audience to increase visibility. Conduct some analytics to determine when … Read More
5 Proven Ways to Help Your Business Grow
In today’s world of business, you have to keep growing your company if you want to survive on the market. Rookie entrepreneurs enter the market with goals such as rapidly growing their business and getting their brand recognized as soon as possible. However, overnight success is something you can hardly achieve. Instead, what you need to do is invest time and money in business growth strategies that have already proven to be effective. That said, we’ve come up with a list of 5 ways you can help your business grow that are guaranteed to do the trick. Make sure you check them out. Hire the right people No matter how good you are at what you do, you’ll never be able to run your business entirely on your own. So, if you want to grow your business, you’ll have to surround yourself with a team you trust and enjoy working … Read More
14 Winning Social Media Tips for Small Businesses
If you’re a small business, you can’t afford not to be on social media. A few years back, sure, maybe it wasn’t crucial, but in 2017, it’s an absolute necessity. It is downright expected that your business will have a social media presence, for everything from daily specials to hours of operation and customer reviews. Read on, and see if your small business can benefit from our favorite social media tips for small businesses just like yours. Having a Profile Isn’t Enough Not having a social media profile looks a little weird. It looks outdated, and sends the impression that your business isn’t playing the same game as the rest of us. But worse than an absent profile is a vacant one — those look downright shady. Make sure your profile is an active social media presence. Start Strong, Right Out of the Gate When you create a new social … Read More
Small Business Resources Roundup
Each month, we bring you the latest roundup of resources for small business owners bootstrapping their businesses and creating quality jobs in their communities. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @PCVtweets. Every Monday we post a new collection of new must-read small business resources, articles, and news. Are there any specific areas your business needs advice in? Let us know, and we’ll search for what you need to add to our monthly roundup.
5 Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing
Everyone knows that there is a great difference in relationships your business builds with your customers (B2C) and those it builds with other businesses (B2B). Sure, you are still trying to appeal to someone, but the truth is that individuals have much different priorities than organizations do. Because of that and in order to do some further research on this topic, here are five differences between B2B and B2C marketing. 1. Product-driven vs. relationship-driven From the very get-go, we can see that the foundation of B2B marketing lies a relationship driven-decision making. Companies are more likely to work with people they know and trust, regardless of your unique value proposition, seeing how this probably won’t be the only time they are doing business together. Furthermore, seeing how there’s usually much more at stake with B2B relationships than with individual consumers, businesses feel more comfortable undertaking this when there’s someone they … Read More
4 Tips on Developing a Data-Driven Marketing Campaign
In the past, it was believed that in order to get maximum ROI on your digital marketing, you had to cover as many areas as possible. This caused businesses to pour money into random media channels in hope that at least one of them would be the one to reach their target audience. Seeing how this required a significant investment, small businesses were usually left behind. Luckily, today more and more marketing campaigns are data-driven — which makes them much more cost-effective and even more available. All in all, here are four tips for those who intend to go down this path. In order to get the right answer, you must first know the question you’re asking is the right one. When doing target market research, people usually focus on things like who buys, or where are they coming from, but seldom do they stop and ponder upon why they … Read More
6 Ways Mobile Marketing Can Make — Or Break — Your Small Business
When you’re starting up a small business, it’s easy to feel like it’s your rinky-dink little David against a monstrously powerful Goliath. Not so, says the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. In 2012, businesses with less than 20 workers accounted for 89.6 percent of companies in the United States. You’re not alone, but that doesn’t make it any easy to propel a limited budget into Fortune 500-level success. Mobile marketing can help. Here are 6 ways you can put the power of mobile marketing to phenomenal use: 1. Upgrade to a Mobile-Ready Site People are impatient, and nobody has time for a site that loads slowly or reads funny. Responsive design is a must these days – without it, you’re risking text that falls off the page and customers that seem to fall off the face of the earth, often for good. Embrace it, and your site will read beautifully whether … Read More
Finding New Customers to Increase Sales
BusinessAdvising.org hosted brand storyteller Deb Doyle for a free small business webinar on strategies and practices to define, find, and engage with your core customers. In this free webinar, Deb covered sales and marketing related to: Defining Your Core Customer Finding Your Core Customer Engaging Your Core Customer Deb Doyle, Brand Storyteller/Founder, Stage2 Marketing, shows clients how to find their voices, clarify their messages and create marketing materials that inspire customers to act. Her work has benefited clients such as Varian Medical Systems, Tastes on the Fly Restaurant Group, University of San Francisco, Solar City and numerous start-ups. Deb teaches advertising and social media at UC Berkeley Extension and San Francisco State University Extension. Prior to launching Stage2 Marketing, Deb was an account director at Publicis & Hal Riney where she introduced the first US camera phone and McCann Erickson where she led Stanford Hospital’s first brand campaign. She managed McDonald’s regional … Read More
4 Pillars of a Successful Small Business Brand
BusinessAdvising.org hosted brand manager and advisor Christina Barea for a free webinar on strategies and practices to establish your company’s brand identity and use your brand to support your growth. Launching and growing a small business and brand is a formidable task. With an infinite amount of details to be addressed — and all of them seemingly equally important — it’s easy to get lost in the details and distracted from the core definition and values of your new business. Fortunately, with a little time spent on preparing a clearly defined reference point, it’s possible to build a brand that can stand the test of time. You’ll learn four essential keys to developing, launching and sustaining a successful brand. This free webinar covered Vision/Mission Statements – Where are you going and how are you getting there? Brand Definition – Identify your brands’ personality Marketing Plan – Get your thoughts on paper!! Consistency – Set … Read More