Top 5 Volunteering Opportunities for Your Small Business Posted on March 18, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk If you want to get your name out there and impress members of your community, consider setting aside a little time for volunteer work. Volunteering has great intrinsic value, of course, but it can also show potential clients and customers that you and your employees are passionate, caring people who have the best interests of your community at heart. At Hatchbuck, one of our core values is Make A Difference. As a team, we are always looking for ways we can give back to the St. Louis community. The following volunteering opportunities double as excellent marketing strategies for small business: Organize 5Ks, Marathons, and Other Races Local races get community members off the couch — and they’re great team building opportunities. What could be better than bonding over matching sweaty shirts and sore feet? The best races are run for a good cause, such as the food shelf, humane society, or some other local charity. These events can be tough to pull off, so volunteer your company’s efforts for the setup process, runner guides, or serving food to those who have completed the race. Feel free to donate prizes to the race’s winners, as well as the runner-up contestants. They’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness and recall your business in the future. Community Gardens Not everybody is eager to run a marathon, but plenty of your neighbors love eating fresh fruits and veggies. Whether you and your employees make a commitment to weekly sessions in a community garden or you simply choose to sponsor one of these increasingly popular plots, you will improve both the beauty of your neighborhood and your company’s reputation. Plus, if you get down in the dirt, you’ll have the opportunity to sample your hard work. There’s nothing quite like eating a fresh tomato off the vine after completing a hardcore gardening session. Highway Cleanup Candy wrappers, cigarette butts, and other debris line the highways in your region. Take care of this eyesore by hosting regular cleanup events. Many locales allow you to sponsor certain portions of local freeways or highways. In exchange for financial support or regular cleanup efforts, you may be allowed to post a sponsorship sign, which serves as an effective form of local advertising. Mentoring Kids and Teens Launch a mentorship program and get a new generation of professionals excited about your industry. Many schools are willing to work with your business to have kids spend a day or two shadowing your employees. If these youngsters like what they see, they will quickly spread the word. This is an excellent first step for any business looking to launch a full-blown internship program. Give Lessons Use your employees’ unique skills to give the community the gift of free education. The type of freebies you provide will largely depend on your company’s industry. Tech companies can host computer classes for seniors, restaurants can provide cooking classes, and dance studios can teach people of all ages how to get their groove on. If the free activity ties back to your company’s mission, you’ll find it easy to build brand awareness. Although everybody loves to attend free events, you can also ask for a small cover charge and give all proceeds to a cause benefiting the community. Attendees are also happy to trade in nonperishable food shelf donations for free classes. Show clients and customers that you care by reaching out and making a difference through volunteering. Your public perception will be through the roof in no time!
6 Simple Ways to Automate Your Workflow With Zapier Posted on March 17, 2016April 26, 2017 by Jessica Lunk As a small business owner, you don’t have time to deal with bottlenecks. Luckily there are many ways to automate the kinks in your daily workflow. Hatchbuck has partnered with Zapier to provide our customers a no-brainer way to automate time consuming administrative tasks so you can focus on running your business – not exporting and importing contacts into your sales and marketing software. So which pesky administrative tasks can you leave for the robots? Here are a few scenarios: 1. Hosting a webinar? Automatically start your webinar registrants on a follow-up campaign. Zapier can add or update contact records. Hatchbuck can then trigger your event-based campaign to send Go-to-Webinar registrants information before and after the event. Don’t forget to send a targeted follow-up campaign to build on those relationships. 2. Surveying your customers? Once a customer completes your survey on SurveyGizmo or SurveyMonkey, Zapier can add a tag to the survey taker. That way, you can stay organized, send any follow up communications (like a tasty treat as thanks – we love sending our customers digital Starbucks giftcards) or avoid sending another ask to complete the survey. 3. Chatting with new prospects? Chat tools are a great addition to your website to answer any questions a visitor may have on the fly. Some people may be too busy to give you a call, but chat tools allow a quick and easy form of communication. When you capture the information of a new prospect on a tool like Pure Chat, Zapier can add these contacts into Hatchbuck automatically for you. No more data entry! 4. Land a new customer? You’re in business to build and follow your dreams and passions. You’re also in business to make the benjamins. As you receive payments from your new customers in PayPal or Stripe, Zapier can add new contacts and a tag. Using this tag, Hatchbuck can send your new customer some love. Send your repeat customers extra love by setting up a tag rule in Hatchbuck that will take note of how often you receive a payment in Paypal or Stripe. 5. Hosting an event? After an awesome event, send a thank you email including photos. Zapier tagged all the Eventbrite attendees for you making your follow up easier than ever. 6. Creating a pop-up lead magnet? If you have awesome resources on your site to entice leads to leave their information, you’ll want to pull them in so you can start nurturing them into customers right away. Zapier can create new contact records in Hatchbuck after your website captures those leads using SumoMe. That way you can then automatically trigger a targeted nurturing campaign. Win-win. Marketing automation isn’t just for big enterprise companies any more. With the new Hatchbuck and Zapier partnership, there are many Zap recipes you can easily create to start hooking in all your moving parts into one platform. For more ideas on how to connect Hatchbuck to the apps you use and love while automating your workflow, check out our Zapbook. Less data entry, more time for doing what you love.
5 Areas You Should Be Investing In Now Posted on March 16, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Cultivate Now, Reap the Benefits Later. Springtime is a good time to be thinking about growth and renewal, taking stock of your business and deciding in what areas you should be investing for long-term benefits. You can’t grow your business without putting some money into it, but if those investments are smart ones the result will be a thriving business. One of the most important things in which to invest if you haven’t already, is technology and automation. In fact, a survey last April by Capital One found that nearly 60 percent of small business owners planned to invest in technology and improving businesses processes. That could be as simple as updating your website and making sure it’s mobile-ready. Wherever you can and wherever it’s cost-effective, automate. Even if investing in software for things like accounting, invoicing or maintaining customer loyalty programs seems awfully expensive, calculate how much money it will save you in the long run, by making those processes more efficient and less time intensive. Here are a few areas where investment and cultivation today will yield big benefits to your business for years to come: Training: The more things you and your employees can take care of in-house, the more money you’ll save and the more engaged your staff will be. Expanding their responsibilities, however, requires training. Make sure to provide that training either on-the-job or outside of it. Training will also enable your employees to grow in their role and in your business, perhaps working their way up from front-line customer service personnel to managing other team members behind-the-scenes. And the cost to train current employees for new roles and responsibilities is far far less than recruiting and training those outside the company. Technology: As I mentioned before, it’s important to invest in technology that makes business processes more efficient and less costly. For example, if you have a retail store and still use a cash register, it’s time to invest in a point-of-sale system that uses an iPad or one that uses the Square device attached to a smartphone or tablet. Instead of keeping paper files for business expenses, invoices and payments use a cloud-based accounting system like QuickBooks, Xero or FreshBooks. You might also want to contract with a company that provides payroll, benefits and worker’s comp insurance to small businesses, like Zenefits. Whenever technology can save you time and money it’s generally a worthwhile investment. Marketing Automation: It’s enormously time consuming and complicated to manually handle all aspects of your online marketing, including keeping track of (and following up with) leads, managing correspondence and handling email marketing campaigns. A customer relationship management system – which is a software or set of tools that helps you track and communicate with prospective and current customers—is essential for staying organized, managing leads and, ultimately, driving sales. It’s also a way to collect and harness data, like information about your website visitors and where they come from, how long they stay and what pages they visit. That information gives you insight into customers’ needs and the products and services that resonate with them. You can use that to develop lasting relationships with customers and to increase sales. One-on-one coaching: Your business is growing, you’re investing in your employees and in new technology and software. But you also need to invest in yourself. Your value to the company can’t be overstated but as the (or an) owner, you don’t have many colleagues from which to get leadership feedback. That’s where a coach comes in. Every business owner should have a coach or a mentor to give them regular advice and guidance, answer questions, and make connections that will be valuable professionally and personally. Spring time is all about planting seeds today that you can harvest down the road. It’s the same in your business. Invest in a few key areas now, and you’ll reap the rewards of a business that can scale efficiently to bring more revenue in the door this year than last year.
9 Tips to Boost Email Conversion Rates Posted on March 15, 2016December 5, 2018 by Katie Culp Smartphones have invigorated email marketing as an important medium for Internet marketers. And just how big is mobile email use? Check out these statistics for 2015: 45% of email opens occurred on mobile, 36% on desktop and 19% in a webmail client. 67.2% of consumers use a smartphone to check their email 75% of Gmail users access their accounts on mobile devices. Gmail now has 900 million users. Mobile email click-throughs grew 22.8 percent on Black Friday, from 44.7 percent in 2014 to 54.9% in 2015. This increase is noteworthy because mobile opens were up only 2.7 percent, from 56.1% in 2014 to 57.6% in 2015. 68% of Gmail and Yahoo! users’ opens occur on a smartphone or tablet Email is used in a variety of ways and plays an integral part in any business’ model. An effective email marketing strategy keeps existing customers while expanding your prospects. So what do you do to improve your email conversion rates? The following tips will provide you with the ideas you need to make the most of this giant market: Optimize for mobile – With so many people accessing email on their device, it pays to make sure your emails look great on mobile. Use mobile-optimized email templates and test your emails using a service like Litmus to make sure everything looks good across the most popular mobile and desktop email clients. Offer an incentive – Offering coupons, discounts, contests, demos, and free downloads all serve as draws to acquire new conversions. Make sure you segregate them into a new email group once the desired action is completed. Don’t hide your subscribe buttons – Make your opt-in button large and colorful. Also, don’t hide your opt-out or unsubscribe button in your emails. Sure, it sucks when people unsubscribe, but think of it this way, you are getting closer to those who have an interest in your products or services so your open and click-through rates rise. Offer free educational content – Including lead magnets on your site offering content that is high quality, live webinars, and educational videos give you many opportunities for you to capture emails. Users feel they are getting something of value and are more prone to give back something in return. They also give you insight on what that contact is interested in. Be persistent – Many customers require multiple interactions with a business before they commit to purchasing. Develop email nurturing campaigns that links to 3 or 4 resources or blog posts that tell a story with each email round. End each campaign with a relevant call to action. Set these campaigns up in your marketing automation software to automatically move your leads through the sales funnel. @MikeKawula Tenacity, and more tenacity. And then keep trying. #BizapaloozaChat — Howard Yermish (@hyermish) March 10, 2016 Keep it simple – Easy to read, simple copy with one call to action stands out more to the reader than a wall of text and multiple links. Make it easy for your prospects to understand and follow through on what you ask them. Measure results – Email is a perfect way to figure out which of your pitches works best. Try split testing different subject lines, wording, images, videos, calls to action, etc. Having data to understand which works best for you and your audience helps you target, communicate, and convert your prospects better. Quick loading pages – With more people using smartphones to read emails, links to pages must load quickly. Be sure your site is mobile ready! Work with your site developers to test site loading speeds and make sure they are loading quick enough to keep your customers engaged. Personalize emails – Too many businesses have developed a philosophy of sending everything to everyone. This does nothing to help you create a trusting relationship with the people on your email lists or to boost email conversions. If you segment your lists, personalize email campaigns with a recipient’s first name in the subject line, and send them an offer that is relevant to their past experiences, you have the potential for a winning email marketing campaign. By employing these tips, you will boost your email conversion rates while also building up an engaged group of customers.
Small Business Doesn’t Have to Mean Horse and Buggy Posted on March 14, 2016June 20, 2018 by Jessica Lunk When it comes to marketing software, many small businesses dismiss the idea as something too expensive, too complex, and too much the exclusive province of major global companies. However, nothing could be further from the truth: 21st-century marketing automation software is affordable, versatile, and can provide a quantum leap in marketing effectiveness for your business. What is Marketing Automation Software? Marketing automation software is designed to help businesses automatically manage multiple business campaigns, to automate a variety of daily businesses practices, and to measure the impact of different business strategies. Ultimately, the goal of such software is to allow businesses large and small to take advantage of advanced marketing tools like digital communication without creating new logistical problems that end up hampering overall marketing effectiveness. How does it benefit small businesses? When it comes to ways for marketing automation software to benefit small businesses, the sky is truly the limit. Software can help manage business leads via dynamically segmentation via online forms, and then automatically generate a reply to interested queries. In fact, this software can help track and manage all leads while helping to facilitate communication within the business and, most importantly, with clients. The longer you use such software, the more useful it becomes, because as you gather more data about clients, leads, and marketing campaigns, you are better able to tailor future marketing strategies to your specific audience through marketing messages. What’s the catch? It’s not often that sales professionals are on this side of a pitch, and the natural question about this software and all of its uses is, “What’s the catch?” In all honesty, there isn’t a catch. The software does, of course, require a significant investment on the part of the small business. However, the improvements that the software provides to efficient lead management helps it pay for itself many times over. In fact, 98% of buyers are looking for dedicated marketing automation software for the first time. Because the whole point of automation software is to ease the workload of a business, you don’t have to worry about hiring additional personnel to manage it. How do you pick the best software? Start by creating a list of features you would like to have the software to handle. The more features a software has, the harder it will be to manage without hiring additional personnel. As for pricing for the marketing automation software, you will be looking at an upfront startup fee and a monthly subscription which may be based on the size of your database of contacts, so it’s important to know if the price will increase as your business grows. Similarly, it’s important to note what the minimum license period is – standard agreements are for 12 months, though whether the full amount must be paid up front or part in monthly installments is up to the software manufacturer. Finally, do your research. Read reviews on software review sites. Find similar-sized businesses who have adopted this software so that you can ask for unbiased opinions, and, if you decide to purchase the software, see if there are additional charges for user training. For more information on improving your marketing strategies, be sure to download our Big Guide to Small Business Marketing:
How Building a Personal Brand Converts Posted on March 11, 2016June 3, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Personal branding is a hot topic in today’s marketing landscape, but few business owners truly understand what it means or how it can promote better conversions. With personal branding, you position yourself as a brand alongside your company. Your employees also have a personal brand of their own. Your personal brand is how you present yourself in the office, online, and even in your personal life. An improved understanding of this concept and how it applies to your own professional trajectory could spell the difference between new opportunities and a stale career. Stand Out From The Crowd Whether your goal is to score new opportunities or grow as a thought leader, personal branding can set you apart from your competitors. Find unique ways to produce value. Your personal brand is about taking ownership and sharing your views. Think about your online presence as a picture you are painting. Do you post with purpose? If you are thoughtful with your personal posting strategy, your point of view and expertise will come across strongly in the long term. In today’s competitive market, mere competency is no longer good enough; employees and clients desire to work with those who possess a few specific strengths, as well as a thorough understanding of the industry. If you have multiple passions or areas of interest, Shama Hyder insists finding a unified theme in your narrative to stand out positively. Know Yourself Everyone has unique traits, and ideally, every business or project will include a mist of these traits. Instead of stifling your natural working style or characteristics, it is better to highlight them in a positive manner. If you are unsure as to which personality traits make you shine, don’t hesitate to ask a friend or get a mentor for feedback. Take both critiques and compliments into account, and feel free to use this feedback to highlight your strengths as you meet with new clients or apply for new positions. Self esteem and confidence in yourself is a major part in being an authentic leader. By knowing and loving yourself, you can consistently build those relationships that get you ahead. Find Consistency A good personal brand offers some semblance of consistency. Thus, a thorough understanding of your personality and the unique skills you can offer is essential; if you do not deliver these qualities on a consistent basis, you will not inspire trust in your clients and fellow employees—and without trust, a personal brand is meaningless. You can display consistency by branding yourself in an honest manner, but for an extra boost, pay attention to how you portray yourself online. A few consistent social media updates can greatly enhance your personal branding efforts. Consistency should also be evident in all offline activity, including one-on-one consultations with clients, attendance at networking events, and even brief chats when you bump into coworkers in the hallway. Your grooming and wardrobe can also say a lot about your personal brand, so be sure to choose a look that is consistent with your overarching message. Your cohorts should never question your commitment to your personal brand. A good personal brand can quickly take you to new heights. Take some time to determine what sets you apart and how these traits can help you make a positive impression. The ultimate goal is to prove that you excel at what you do, and more importantly, that you are different in the best possible way.
Headed to a Conference? Don’t Worry, Networking Doesn’t Have to Be Hard. Posted on March 10, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Sometimes it can be tough to venture away from the refreshments table to meet new people. Industry conferences are valuable networking opportunities, but they’re also chaotic and nerve-wracking. Entering a crowd of fellow professionals feels a bit like making those initial introductions at college orientation. But putting yourself out there is essential, for, just as that coed you forced yourself to talk to in college became your late night pizza eating partner, the professional you bravely walk up to might be your ticket to a new and exciting business opportunity. Put your best foot forward and follow these networking tips the next time you attend a conference: Figure Out Who to Meet If you stumble blindly into a conference with no idea of the speakers or attendees’ identities, you will come away with few valuable connections. Chatting with a few random strangers is fine, but be sure to also target people who can help you further your business. These include keynote speakers and panelists, of course, but also other attendees with inside knowledge surrounding partnerships, clients and other opportunities you’d like to explore. Many conference websites offer lists of confirmed attendees and where they work, so take some time to scour these lists and look up a few registered conference attendees on LinkedIn. Connect First on Social Media Typically, conference attendees meet one another first and then send social media invites after the conference. Switch up the pattern and, after checking out the list of attendees, send a few of them messages on LinkedIn, letting them know that you’d like to meet up. If they’re open to the idea, you can set up a specific time and place to meet. This is an effective strategy for meeting panelists; if you don’t schedule a meeting, you may be forced to wait in line for ages before you score a brief conversation. Suggest meeting before the presentation, when panelists and keynote speakers aren’t quite as busy. Ask the Right Questions By the time you get to your fifth meet-and-greet, you’ve likely tired of discussing where you’re from and which companies you’ve worked for. Change up your conversations by asking more interesting questions. Ideally, these will be open-ended queries that allow your fellow conference attendee to share the true source of his or her passion. In addition, you may be able to help a fellow attendee with a business goal, opening up an opportunity for partnership. Examples of excellent questions include: Which of the panelists would you most like to talk to, and why? What breakout sessions are you most interested in? What sparked your interested in this industry? What are your business goals? What type of introductions would help your business? Volunteer If you struggle with networking, you may find it easier to meet fellow industry leaders while volunteering at a conference. These events are hard work to put on, and volunteers are always appreciated. Not only will you be forced to break out of your shell and interact with others, you may score free or discounted admission. You also will make a great impression on fellow attendees, who will appreciate your charitable nature. As with most things in life, you get out what you put in while attending conferences. Make the most of this networking opportunity and arrive armed with a plan. The more strategy you employ, the more opportunities will come your way.
How to Stop Complexity from Choking Your Business Posted on March 9, 2016May 27, 2016 by Don Breckenridge For small businesses, complexity is particularly mystifying. Getting as many employees to do as many things as possible to attract as many customers as possible is, on paper, a gateway to productivity. In reality, trying to do too much, too soon, and with too few resources is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, there’s a few key ways to make the complicated, complex world of small business both simpler and more productive. 1: Don’t compromise When facing difficult business challenges, it is often tempting to take the simpler, easier path. After all, they all lead to the same goal, right? Not exactly. It’s actually simpler and more productive to tackle the toughest situations directly. This helps to define your values and work ethic to employees and customers alike and may actually lead to new opportunities. This, of course, should already be a major part of your SWOT analyses – sifting through threats to discover hidden opportunities to help the business and its employees grow. 2: Focus on core services As Steve Jobs himself once noted, it’s highly important for companies to focus on doing “simple” things and doing them well. An iPhone, for instance, is one of the most sophisticated devices in the world … yet it is simple enough for a child to intuitively use. In terms of running a business, the focus on simplicity should be on the core services provided by that company. Instead of confusing clients and employees alike by adding a non-stop bevy of new bells and whistles, focus on making key services more intuitive and easy to use. This always builds client trust much more effectively than making things needlessly complex. 3: Deliver one point at a time On a related note, it’s important to keep information delivery simple. Whether it’s informing consumers about a new product or describing a new marketing strategy to employees, the temptation is there to give everyone as much information as possible. However, in a world of hashtags and headlines, people crave a simple and direct message. Even relatively simple messages can be made simpler. People often try to give three important points at once, but that time might be better spent focusing on one key message. This way, the points don’t compete with each other for the attention of your audience. 4: Embrace imperfection One particular affliction is shared by almost all of the great business leaders and innovators throughout the world: They want things to be absolutely perfect. After all, when bringing their ideas to life, why would they settle for anything short of their vision? However, as Inc.com notes, waiting for something to be perfect can be dangerous: Productivity grinds to a halt as individuals and entire teams focus on doing one thing perfectly instead of doing several things well. Ultimately, customers are not expecting everything to be completely perfect, but they are expecting prompt service and high (though not impossibly high) standards. If a business waits for perfection, the simple truth is that customers won’t wait for the business. For regular tips on how to simplify the complicated things in your professional life, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter.
Springtime is The Right Time to Grow Your Customer Base Posted on March 8, 2016May 27, 2016 by Jessica Lunk Aaahh, spring. Buds on the trees, birds singing and ground ready for planting. Springtime (or anytime, for that matter) is the perfect time to plant the seeds for customer growth. With the right nurturing—feeding, fertilizing and yes, even weeding–those seeds will sprout and grow and in the process, they will also help your small business grow. You don’t want to plant any old seeds, you want to cultivate the types of plants and flowers you really want to grow. It’s the same with growing your customers base. You want to nurture relationships with the right type of customer, one that not only comes back again and again but spreads their love through word-of-mouth recommendations, social media mentions and positive online reviews. Here’s how to plant the seeds that will lead to great customers: Get the ground ready. Strategically growing your customer base means you don’t aim for everyone who could potentially be a customer, instead, you think about the customers you really want to target. In the same way you wouldn’t buy every variety of tomato seed at the store, it doesn’t make sense to try and reach everyone who could, potentially, be a customer. Be more strategic about it, considering which folks are likely to need or want what you offer and are also likely to want it more than once. Are they active on social media? Will they interact with others who might need or want what you’re offering? These are all attributes that make for a quality customer. If you can hone in on a niche group that you feel will be especially receptive to your offerings, so much the better. Rather than using a plant-every-variety approach, narrow your target market and zoom in on one group of potential customers that you believe will be an especially good fit. Now plant. Reach out and engage with those potential customers, that’s how you plant the seeds of a relationship with them. There are many ways to do this—you can use social media, traditional advertising, discounts, special offers and gifts. As soon as someone visits your site, store or makes a purchase, you can send an automated email either asking if they could use some help, if they would like call from a sales associate, or just thank them for being a customer. Lead magnets are a great way to start a conversation with potential customers who are visiting your site. Planting the seeds of a relationship today ensures you’re set to harvest new customers tomorrow. Water, feed, fertilize. The best way to grow your current customer base is through referrals and word-of-mouth, and you can grow revenue by getting current customers to come back and buy more, upgrade their service or extend contracts. First and foremost, you’ve got to be communicating regularly with your base. It’s the water—and nothing grows without it. A solid email marketing program keeps new and old customers in the loop: Lets them know about special deals and discounts Keeps them apprised of product updates Shares with them valuable articles and how-tos that make their life easier This is where your engagement marketing platform becomes essential, the backbone of your cultivation efforts. That ongoing engagement helps build a solid and lasting relationship with your customers. Don’t waste their time though, only communicate when you have something of value to offer, whether that’s advice, news and information or discounts. Be attentive. Any garden needs continuous monitoring and weeding, and your new customers want to know you care about them. If they comment on your Facebook page, reference your company in a Tweet or hashtag you in an Instagram—respond. Show your customers you know where they live and you live in that same world. And you can use technology by asking customers what they need. Run surveys on Facebook or send a two-question survey out in one of your engagement emails to see how your customers feel about products and services. If you’re an ice cream shop, for example, and you’re thinking of introducing some new flavors for summer, ask customers what they’d prefer. You’d be following the advice of marketing guru Peter Drucker, who said, “The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well, the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Reap the harvest. You’ll reap many benefits from carefully planned and strategic marketing efforts. As those seeds you’ve planted sprout and grow, their seeds will become your brand’s evangelists, carried by the wind to places beyond your garden. And that will help your customer base grow both intentionally and organically.