Best of Small Business Week of July 8, 2012 Posted on July 12, 2013June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani It’s Friday which means we have our weekly roundup of must-read small business articles to share. Enjoy and happy Friday! 1. “6 Ways to Keep Entrepreneurship Alive in Your Company” by John Oringer Your small business needs to keep that entrepreneurship attitude! Here are some tips on how to keep that vibe alive in your small business. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130711155343-3569651-six-ways-to-keep-entrepreneurship-alive-in-your-company?trk=cha-feed-art-title 2. “8 Ways to Win at Marketing by Being Useful” by Jay Baer Baer gives some great marketing tips. His advice is on how to be useful is, well, useful! Any small business should follow his advice. When you are useful to your leads, prospects and customers, they respect you and want to give you their business. http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/07/11/8-ways-to-win-at-marketing-by-being-useful/ 3. Big Presentation 5 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid by Eric V. Holtzclaw Giving a big presentation or pitch? Avoid these mistakes on the big day. http://www.inc.com/eric-v-holtzclaw/big-presentation-5-rookie-mistakes-to-avoid.html
Am I Allowed to do that? How to follow the Email Marketing Laws Posted on July 10, 2013 by Nicci Troiani Because Hatchbuckers use our software to send e-mail marketing communications to their leads, we get a lot of questions about what is legal, right and acceptable. Others may not be aware that there are laws that guide the e-mail marketing space. Here are the basic laws for e-mail marketing: Don’t use false or misleading header information. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. Identify the message as an ad. Tell recipients where you’re located. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. Sounds easy enough right? If you are trying to manage your list manually, handling opt ins and opt outs can get messy. Using a software that can do this for you will minimize your chances of missing an opt out request. Here is a full article on these points from the Bureau of Consumer protection that goes into these points more in depth: http://www.business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-compliance-guide-business
The 4 Keys To Startup Success for Incubators Posted on July 8, 2013 by Lindsey Stroud Startup companies are key to driving our economy. But an idea and a little capital is hardly enough to keep the small business dream going. After all according to the Harvard Business Review nearly 75% of all starts ups fail (yikes!) There is a resurgence in entrepreneurism and a big reason for all the growth in “Startupville” has been the support and mentorship of Business Incubators. Incubators are a vital resource in helping budding entrepreneurs bring their ideas to market and give young companies the resources they need to grow successfully. Our company, Hatchbuck was originally hatched in an incubator in Downtown St. Louis called T-Rex. It is a great environment where businesses and entrepreneurs receive the tools and resources they need to build something gigantic. From a startup perspective, I would like to share my 4 Keys to Startup Success for Incubators 1. Don’t Forget the Purpose – Startup companies join an incubator for a myriad of reasons. It takes more than just a new idea and a little cash to make their dream reality. Business Incubators offer financial, human capital and physical resources needed to get their business off the ground and allow them to bring in the bacon. But it is easy to overlook a central purpose of the incubator. Mentorship. A startup can find everything an incubator offers outside of an incubator, but I can speak firsthand to the value that a Business Incubator can add when they have an attitude of mentorship. 2. Create a Great Culture – Be intentional about getting your member companies together. It’s hard enough as a startup but it is even harder when you are going at it alone. If you are an Incubator find ways to get your startups connected on an ongoing basis and as a startup be that thermostat that other companies need to set the temperature for the environment. 3. Centralize Resources – Know what all of your member companies need from a resource perspective and ask yourself what could we centralize and be more efficient at? What process could we create that could allow our startups to scale up more quickly. For example by centralizing your startups accounting, recruiting or hiring needs could you take valuable time off of the plate of your member companies and allow them to focus on driving their product, services and sales? 4. Leverage Outside Programs – There are a number of outside programs designed for startups to help them get up and running fast. With our new Hatchbuck Incubator Program, we kept our fellow start-ups in mind. Incubators receive our sales and marketing software for free to help them manage their contacts, startup companies , and market their services. Your Startup Companies receive Hatchbuck sales and marketing software at a 50% discount for the first year. A great way to supercharge sales and take time off your hands by automating your sales and marketing process. Check out more about the new Hatchbuck Incubator Program (HIP)
Best of Small Business This Week Posted on June 28, 2013June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani It’s Friday which means we have our “Best of Small Business” this week for you. Here are some great articles we have found to share with our readers this week. 1. Avoid these Four Email Marketing Mistakes by Kelly Gregorio Email marketing is a great way for small business to directly communicate with prospects as well as customers. Avoid these four mistakes to stay on top of your game! http://www.successful-blog.com/1/avoid-these-four-email-marketing-mistakes/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+successful-blog%2FWuQV+%28Liz+Strauss+at+Successful+Blog%29 2. SEO Primer for Startups by Bryan Janeczko SEO can be an intimidating topic for small business owners. Janeczko does a great job of pointing out a few things that anyone can do to rank a little higher in a search without spending a ton of money or time on search engine optimization. http://blog.score.org/2013/bryan-janeczko/seo-primer-for-startups/ 3. How to Reduce Your Cycle Times by Doug and Polly One thing that a lot of small businesses struggle with is identifying current processes and how to improve them. This article has some great, simple suggestions including documenting the process, eliminating unnecessary steps, reducing wait time, processing in parallel and automating to save time. http://www.dougandpolly.com/managing-operations/564-how-to-reduce-your-cycle-times 4. 3 Business Safety Tips for Summertime by Donna Fuscaldo Not a lot of business owners think about, or realize that summertime can bring additional risks to small businesses. Fuscaldo lists here some risks to consider. http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/entrepreneurs/2013/06/21/3-business-safety-tips-for-summertime/
8 Easy Ways To Stay Top Of Mind With Prospects Posted on June 26, 2013November 9, 2016 by Lindsey Stroud We know that in order to convert prospects to loyal customers, we must build relationships and stay in touch. Although we know we SHOULD follow-up, lack of time often prohibits us from doing so as often as we ‘d like. Staying top of mind with your prospects doesn’t just have to be a lengthy phone call or personalized email. There are many easy ways you can stay on your prospects radar without wasting internal resources and time or overwhelming them. Don’t let lack of time or money within your small business be an excuse for not staying top of mind. Chances are, if you aren’t following up on a regular basis – your competitor is. 8 Easy Ways To Stay Top Of Mind With Prospects Send an Occasional Email Newsletter With Helpful Info & Tips – Chances are you have some great content on your fingertips that you can share in a newsletter format. Make sure if you are highlighting products and services that you also provide some educational and relevant content. Send a Card – A handwritten card still goes a long way in showing you took the time to personalize a message for the individual. Distribute a Helpful Article You Came Across That Is Relevant To The Prospect – Come across a helpful article or recent news story you think someone may appreciate? Email a quick link and show others you took the time to think they may appreciate the content you came across. Secure an Automated Follow-Up Email To Send On Your Behalf – One of the easiest ways to make sure you follow-up on a regular basis is to have an automated email send on your behalf. Know that you want to follow-up every few months? Create a brief checking in email (with a few variations) and set it send out to your prospects on your behalf. Forward an Invite To A Company Event – Hosting an event at the office or attending an event in the community? Let your prospects know what you’re doing and offer up an invite to attend. Forward Over a Birthday Greeting – Who doesn’t love someone remembering its their birthday? Make it a point to send some sort of birthday greeting. They show your business took the time to remember a special day (hint: in Hatchbuck, you can set automatic birthday emails – no more marking your calendar!) Send Happy Holiday Emails – People love to celebrate the holidays (vacation days, anyone?). Show you’re in the spirit and send holiday emails throughout the year. Engage on Social Media (Comment & Share a company FB status or RT a prospect tweet) – Social media is a great place to interact and build a community with your prospects. Stumble across a great Tweet? Retweet or favorite it. See an interesting Facebook post? Comment and like it. It takes no time, and can attract positive attention and help build better relationships.
Capture Emails at your Next Event Posted on June 24, 2013June 1, 2016 by Nicci Troiani Events can be a huge lead source, but statistics show that more than half of trade show leads are not followed up on. If you have ever worked a trade show, you can see how this is easy. People show their “interest” by dropping off their business cards, and you get your “leads” from the e-mail list that the event producer gives to everyone. This causes a few issues: A lot of leads, but not really interested ones Too many leads to follow up with individually How do you tell who is interested? Well, you can call or email each contact individually or plug the whole list into an e-mail marketing software and send an e-blast OR you can have the contacts who are interested enter themselves into a database and then be able to track who is interested while having the Hatchbuck software follow up with them automatically. Here is how Hatchbuck can make lead generation at trade shows much, much simpler: 1. Have the leads enter themselves! Using an online form, open on a blank landing page, interested booth visitors can fill out a form, which will enter their information straight into your database. You can even go a step further and include options in the form so that you can identify which products or services that the contact is interested in. You can also send them an auto-responder email or automated multi-step marketing campaign. Make sure that you offer something of value to help entice attendees to sign up 2. Communicate with them automatically Because Hatchbuck can automate your marketing, you won’t have to worry about following up with each individual prospect. Hatchbuck has the ability to track interest and create tasks for you to follow up with only the most interested prospects. 3. Have prospects segment themselves The Hatchbuck software has the ability to track when a contact clicks on any link within an email. Then, you can take it further by setting actions on that link click. For example, you can say when a contact clicks on a link in your “Wine Monthly” newsletter about white wine, have Hatchbuck tag them with “white wine” and then send them an email, your “white wine coupon.” Now, instead of having to tackle the whole list yourself post-event, you can sit back, relax and let Hatchbuck do it for you.
3 Social Infographics Every Small Business Must See Posted on June 14, 2013 by Lindsey Stroud 3 Social Infographics Every Small Business Must See Click any infographic to redirect to a larger image!
Email Marketing Roundup Posted on June 12, 2013 by Nicci Troiani Once a month, we try to compile a few articles related to email marketing or small business that we want to share with our readers. Here is this month’s e-mail marketing Roundup! 1. 10 Ways to Integrate Your Social Media and Email Marketing by Jeff Bullas We love email and we love social media. At Hatchbuck, we are firm believers that to get the best responses and help grow your email list and social following, you need to integrate the 2 together. Bullas gives some great pointers here on how to do so. http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/07/01/10-ways-to-integrate-your-social-media-and-email-marketing/ 2. Why You Should Use a Strategy for your B2B Email Marketing by Marc Bergers Great points on how and why to develop a strategy for your email marketing for your small business. https://exploreb2b.com/articles/caution-very-boring-why-you-should-use-a-strategy-for-your-b2b-email-marketing 3. Email Marketing: change in incentive offer causes a 25% increase in email subscribers in one day for nonprofit by Courtney Eckerle Lead bait is a big factor in the amount of subscribers you will receive. This is a great case study on how adjusting your incentive offer can increase subscribers. http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/incentive-change-increase-email-subscribers#
4 Must-Do’s For Selling on Social Media Posted on May 31, 2013June 1, 2016 by Lindsey Stroud A recent statistic from Forbes says that 78% of sales people outperformed those not using social media. Whether we like it or not, social networking is here to stay and we can learn to adapt and use it to our business advantage. Understanding your buyers footprint – where they spend their time, what their conversing about, and what problems they are facing is crucial to converting them to life-long customers. If you want to social sell effective, there are some things you will want to do to ensure you don’t outcast yourself as the pushy sales type. 4 Must-Do’s For Selling on Social Media 1) Find Out Where Your Potential Buyers Hang Out Before you can ever engage in an active conversation with a lead, you must know where they are spending time online. Are they in LinkedIn groups, following certain Twitter hashtags, or maybe gathered around blog conversations? Do your research up front to pinpoint where those you wish to engage with are spending most of their time on the web so you are able to create a social selling strategy with focus. 2) Use Common Courtesy Each social network has its own set of implied common courtesies, so make sure you familiarize yourself with them before you begin using social networks to sell. For example, on Facebook it’s not generally acceptable to add people to your friends that you do not previously know, while on Twitter following just about anyone is encouraged. On LinkedIn, you are able to ask for introductions through mutual connections to help lessen the tension. Using the common courtesies that follow each social network will help you avoid raising a red flag before you even begin engaging. 3) Actively Engage In Conversation There’s a difference between participating and self-promoting within social groups. Remember not to control the conversation, but rather join others who may already be conversing. You don’t have to directly mention your product or service to help others solve the problem, let them take note of your expertise through your engagement. Starting a meaningful conversation is the first step in building a sales relationship, so don’t forget to listen as much as you talk and provide helpful feedback. 4) Work On Building Quality Relationships If you blast out promotional posts/tweets/etc. and expect connections that you have never interacted with to jump at buying your product or service, you could be setting yourself up for epic failure. Instead, if you take points 1-3 and then apply with them with the mentality to build a trusting relationship, you are likely to see far greater return. Always remember that people do business and repeat business with those they know, like, and trust – and that starts with a relationship.