As your business starts to grow, where do you find the time to focus on marketing your small business? Zachary Evans has some tips
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Find Time to Make Marketing Your Small Business a Priority
3 Ways to win Small Business Saturday 2016
Every year, retailers prepare for it months in advance: the weekend after Thanksgiving. Of course, while Black Friday has long been a cornerstone of every store’s holiday season, the weekend has expanded in more recent years. Cyber Monday finds online sellers offering their best deals, Giving Tuesday fosters charity campaigns in the nonprofit sector and Small Business Saturday encourages consumers to support locally owned businesses in their own neighborhoods.
Small Business Saturday began in 2010 as an American Express campaign, and has since grown to reach 95 million shoppers in 2015. As the 2016 season rolls around, below are 3 ways to ensure your small business makes the most of the day – and embodies best practices that continue throughout the holidays.
Be active and available on social media. One of the reasons customers participate in Small Business Saturday is because they enjoy forming connections with other individuals and business owners instead of large corporations. Beyond spending the day actively meeting with and serving customers in your store (or through communications coming into your website channels), be sure all hands are on deck to monitor social media, respond to questions and thank customers for supporting a small business.
Streamline internal processes. Perhaps you’ve been considering swapping internal IT staff for a consultant, or finally moving away from the various spreadsheets that house customer information for your internal team. If you have the chance to downsize processes and increase results, take it before you head into the holiday season.
Don’t let customer service suffer due to a busy day. We get it. The holiday season is tough for any retailer, but for a small business with limited resources, it’s easy to find yourself giving 100 percent – then realizing you have nothing left. Create a plan for building lasting customer relationships on Small Business Saturday and beyond, and you’ll find yourself enjoying the benefits of repeat business sooner rather than later.
Learn how a CRM can enhance customer relationships for small businesses.
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
5 Ways to Improve your Business Organization and Increase Sales on YouTube Live!
Join Ramon Ray from Smart Hustle Magazine and Erin Mathie from Business Made Simple for a YouTube Live event where they’ll have a candid, informative discussion on “5 Ways to Improve your Business Organization and Increase Sales”.
Ramon Ray is an entrepreneur, small business advisor, speaker, and editor of Smart Hustle Magazine. An avid lover of technology, Ramon works with Small Business Technology and SmartHustle magazine to educate professionals in how to strategically use technology to grow their business.
Erin Mathie is co-owner of Business Made Simple, a solutions consultancy for small and growing businesses. She is an operations and process professional and has helped thousands of small business owners run their business like a boss!
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
Insightly Speaks for Small Businesses at CRM Evolution
Running a business in an increasingly digital world has both its challenges and advantages. From setting up a website and social profiles to sending email newsletters, there’s plenty of opportunities to be had. However, it can be an uphill battle for small business owners that may not be as tech savvy.
That’s the topic taking center stage at CRM Evolution, now underway in Washington D.C. The annual conference brings together more than 60 speakers and 40 sessions featuring the industry’s most respected influencers, analysts, consultants, and vendors to discuss the latest and greatest in CRM technology and strategies for improving customer relationships.
Our very own CEO and founder, Anthony Smith, will be sitting on a panel led by industry heavy-weight Brent Leary to discuss CRM and small businesses living in the digital world. Fellow CEOs from ConvergeHub, Nimble, and Zoho join Smith, and together they will discuss how the digital world is changing the ways in which small businesses interact and address customers’ needs. They will also discuss the technologies that can help them to meet rising expectations and increase sales.
Attending CRM Evolution? Come join the conversation at 9 a.m. ET. Otherwise, you can follow along on Twitter using the official conference hashtag: #CRMevolution.
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
Post-Winter Storm Jonas: How to Keep Your Business Open When the Doors are Closed
If you live or work on the East Coast then you most likely felt the effects of Winter Storm Jonas last week. The blizzard dumped more than 25 inches of snow in less than two days, and in areas like Washington D.C. and Philadelphia – cities unaccustomed to such weather conditions. The result? Travel bans on interstates, grounded planes and thousands of people stuck at home until the storm passed. The post-storm clean up is expected to take several days and maybe even weeks. Worse, that was just our first big winter storm. Here are our tips to help your business weather the next one.
Form a plan
First off, do you have an inclement weather policy? If not, it’s best to come up with a specific and concrete plan for how your employees will be notified of office closures and what their next steps should be. Employees won’t appreciate trekking all the way to work, battling the elements, only to find out the office is closed. Be clear about how and when employees will find out about a snow day and relevant next steps. Also, make sure to revisit your policies every year and reiterate protocol so everyone is on the same page.
Set expectations
A weather event can lead to unexpected work conditions that many employees may not be accustomed to. Before bad weather hits, talk to your team about expectations for working from home. Emphasize the need for professionalism and that even if they are working from the couch in pajamas, the workday will go on as usual. Snow days, unfortunately, don’t constitute a day off in the work world. Fortunately, with the technology available today, even when the weather causes you to shut down your office, business can still be done in a (semi) normal fashion.
Keep business moving
With the help of cloud-based tools, employees can stay connected and productive from any location. For example, video-conferencing can bring everyone face-to-face for meetings and brainstorms. A CRM will give employees access to customer records and documents even if they’re working from home. Additionally, a project management tool will allow the entire team to distribute, discuss and review materials with the same efficiency as they would in the office.
Winter weather can bring companies to a standstill if they’re not able to conduct business as usual, which means every minute that passes, is money lost. By planning ahead and taking advantage of the right technology, your employees can stay connected and productive even if your physical doors are closed.
