This oldie of a song by The Jamies from 1958 gets us pumped up to enjoy every minute of the summertime, and we should! That means, even small business owners should plan to take a vacation. Earlier this month I shared an article that outlined the steps to take in order to truly be able to step away from your business so that your vacation will allow you to fully recharge. Upon your return of a well-deserved vacation, you will be refreshed and ready to tackle business goals and new growth.

With this happy summertime vibe going, this season is not a time to lapse in your growth plans for your business. I want to review a few ideas for keeping a plan for growth moving all while having fun during the summer season.

Be social – whether with your coworkers, business associate or on your own, share some photos of yourself on social media having fun, being out there and enjoying life. It’s a great way to connect with your customers and clients that they see you outside the scope of your professional role. Fun photos are great conversation starters.

Office re-fresh – sometimes as small business owners, our offices can get out of control. Tackle some small projects in the office to be more organized and maybe more efficient. You will feel great and energized to work on growth plans by clearing out the clutter and getting organized.

Network – so many options for networking outdoors in the summer. One of the perks of being a business owner is not to be trapped in a job or to a desk in the great weather. So, combine getting outdoors and build your business by networking. Networking is great for business exposure, and making new contacts and relationships.

New Offering – Summer is the season of energy. Use this energy creatively to map out a new offering you have been thinking about.

I wish you a happy summer and I do hope you take time to vacation and to smell the roses, all while keeping your business flourishing in some fun and creative ways.

Maureen

• Make sure all hyperlinks work
• Make sure all images accurately reflect your product, service or location
• Make sure the design is simple and easy to navigate
• Test your contact forms and make sure they are working
• Make sure pricing is up-to-date
• Check your website on mobile
• Make sure downloadable forms are the current version
• Make sure employee rosters are accurate
• Make sure all contact information is current
• Remove products or services you no longer offer
• Check your SSL and update website software as needed

All too frequently, I hear from business owners who are submerged with the day-to-day tasks of running a business. This leads to them being overwhelmed or worse being unmotivated to forge ahead. When this occurs, unfortunately, the important, positive tasks that need to get done for business development and business growth fall to the bottom of the to-do list time and again.

Some day-to-day tasks that owners get caught up IN are trying to figure out web design and development, what search engine optimization is all about and how to learn everything about it, trying to learn too many social channels at once, learning bookkeeping systems, designing templates for emails and so on. These are tasks that based on your strengths, you may not be equipped to tackle efficiently or even successfully.

The best solutions for overcoming these common problems of being caught up in the IN grind are to delegate jobs that you are not great at. This may mean hiring per diem help for specific tasks and/or to use other services providers regularly or as needed. Initially, taking these steps may feel scary, either emotionally or financially, but ultimately you will realize the beauty of doing so. By taking these necessary steps, you open up the time you need to work ON your business. Your time will be freed up to do the things that you are great at, the things you are passionate about and those tasks that need to be done for business growth!

At Yes You Can Marketing, we offer web design, web development and website maintenance services that are all about saving you time and looking good online. We also offer a variety of coaching and training services to help you DIY more effectively and more efficiently to save precious time as a business owner. Want to learn how to manage your word press website? Get a jump start on SEO or Analytics and Webmaster tools? Or maybe you struggle with defining your target for better marketing or setting up an email template and calendar. Whatever your online pain point is, we can help. Check us out here and give us a call to get on your way to working more ON your business instead of IN your business.  https://yesyoucanmarketing.com/internet-marketing-coaching-training/

Email marketing is a gift from a marketing perspective for many reasons. One, it allows a business owner to reach out to their prospective clients who signed up for email notifications or otherwise showed interest in their product or service. That, by itself is an amazing feature! Consumers like to research and take time before making purchase decisions. The internet allows for a lot of that. But if they made any indication of interest in your product or service you would be doing a disservice to your brand if you didn’t stay in touch. Consider, if a prospect is deciding between your business and another, possibly receiving that well timed email is the deciding factor.

What about your existing customers? Do they want to hear from you? Possibly if you have more to offer or share. Sending emails with relevant content, industry news or other important information like your premium services to your customer base keeps you top of mind and reminds them that you have additional offerings for them.

Stay in touch emails are an extremely valuable tool in your marketing arsenal. And, what makes it even extra special is its affordability for setting up, implementing and maintaining. Of course, using an email marketing provider such as Constant Contact or MailChimp aids in setting things up the right way and most important, to keep you compliant with the laws surrounding email marketing.

As with everything else, email marketing does require a bit of time and planning but it can be a game – changer for your business. Well worth implementing this strategy to your marketing plan.  Want some assistance with getting started? We understand that having a hand in setting email marketing up is desirable for many small business owners and we have just the right service to help. Check out our email marketing service. 

Consider a few statistics!  Number 1: 93% of local searches now feature Google My Business listings. [Source: STAT Analytics] This is a HUGE Number for local search – and this alone should make you want to have a great GMB Listing and, number 2: 68% of people contact a business directly from search results. [Source: Search Engine Land] This is a Big Deal TOO since we already know 50% of all web traffic is on MOBILE devices – all someone needs to do is tap a link… to call you or get directions.

If you are not utilizing this GMB tool, I can guarantee that your competitors do, and they are the ones picking up online leads. And if you think this isn’t significant, think back to the title of this blog.. Doesn’t everybody google? Not everyone is on twitter or facebook or linkedin but nearly everyone has a computer or mobile device and the majority use Google as their search tool. The biggest online source of fresh leads.

The Google My Business tool has evolved significantly. It provides a knowledge panel that takes information found online about your business or even better takes the information you provide about your business and showcases is a robust, comprehensive format. As the business owner, you have full control over this listing. Beside the basics of business name, phone, web address and map, there is so much more you can do!

Google My Business is now fully SOCIAL Consider it a landing page for your business – compliments of Google. This knowledge panel helps a consumer, at a glance, familiarize themselves with your brand and determine if they want to engage with your business. When used correctly, your listing can be a spark for customer acquisition. Now you can interact and attract new business AT a time and place where your prospects are searching for your product or service, pre-selling them on doing business with you.

Take control of your Google My Business listing today! Claiming it and verify it and explore all you can add to it! From a full description of your business to photos and business category. You can share videos, posts, blog articles and even special offers! And, most important of all, all of your reviews can be captured here too. Beside Google reviews, other review channels automatically get shown on your GMB listing too when you take the right steps! Its a fantastic opportunity for exposure for your brand and business and the most comprehensive gathering of so much information to present to your prospects.

Reviews are the cherry on top of your Google My Business Listing. Reviews are SOCIAL PROOF.  Here’s two more statistics. Number 1: 76% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, [Source: Bright Local] and number 2: 77% of users don’t trust reviews older than three months.  [Source: Statuslabs]. Simply put, this means your business needs reviews because your prospective clients expect to see them and they rely heavily on fresh reviews. If you don’t have a review and reputation strategy to get steady reviews from your customers and clients, it’s easy to get assistance. Yes You Can Marketing has a special service dedicated to helping our clients to automate the process of asking for reviews, obtaining them, collecting them all in one place for easy sharing on your social channels and so much more. Schedule a call here to learn just how easy it is to get started or call 732-581-7873. We can get your Google My Business page in Tip Top shape and the power of reviews working for you!

Often we receive calls from business owners or start-up owners who want to giddy-up go on social media for their business. They rattle off five or six social media channels that they hear others speak about and they want to jump in. What they fail to consider in this initial wave of excitement is that all the different channels take time and that they may be better off focusing on just a few to get started. This will give them experience with managing and responding to a few channels – so they can be strong at these efforts, instead of trying too many and diluting the effort and ultimate results.

With that in mind, the question then becomes: what social channels should you use for your business? And the answer is that it depends. The heavy hitters of social media we all are familiar with are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube. We also should include Google My Business on this list as well. Trying to jump start all of these at once would be overwhelming and most likely unsuccessful. Instead, a good idea is to select one or two channels to start with. To choose the best one or two social channels to start with, think hard about your target audience. Your audience consists of your active and prospective clients and customers, and you need to tune in and think about them deeply and decipher what social media platforms they use. What do they look at, and what sites do they visit everyday?

Once you decide what one or two channels you are going to start with, create your business accounts for these channels and read up on the requirements for each of them. These include the type of content, content length, image size, etc. Once your accounts are created and branded, then create a calendar for the content that you want to post and how frequently you will post on these channels. Using a calendar is a wonderful way to plan and be ahead of time. Otherwise, you wind up rushing to post and will not always have your best content. There are also tools that you can use to pre-schedule your content. We happen to love and use Hootsuite but there are others as well. In your plan, you also have to implement who will be monitoring the social channels for comments, shares, likes and your responses.

As you settle in on these first social channels with a system in place, you can now think about advertising on these channels and/or adding additional channels to your mix. Implementing social media takes some time, but it can be fun and more importantly a highly beneficial way for you to stay in front of your existing clients and customers and also a way to attract new customers. If you want help in setting up your social media plan and channels, reach out to Yes You Can Marketing to get you set up and on your way to a successful social media presence for your business.

Once Google recognizes your business listing, you can potentially show up in the highly important map search and the organic search results as well. That’s pretty powerful to be on a page two times as a searching consumer will think better of you for seeing you twice. When people search they use phrases like, “near me” or by county or town. See the example search for our client, Ed Smith Upholsters. Because of Local Boost, for the search Upholsters in Ocean County, this client shows up first in the Map and in the Organic Search results under major directories. This client also reaps the benefit of wonderful customer reviews!

Do you need Local Boost? Its easy to tell if you need this type of service. Go in a private search window and type for your service and your geographic area such as county or town or near me. If you don’t show up and/or you have few or no reviews, call us today to discuss Local SEO and our super easy Yes You Can Get Reviews system to get started with growing your business online. Call us direct at 732-581-7873

As we kick off Spring in this unusual time, here is list of ideas that you can focus on for your Spring cleaning, freshening up for your business and cultivating new ideas to advance your business. With the bit of extra time on your hands now, focus on a few of these and you will be ready for continued business growth.

1. Review your marketing – Marketing should be maintained and improved, especially during trying times. Review what is working and what is not and make adjustments accordingly. With a fresh and keen review, you may uncover a new and better plan for your target audience. Think about what their mindset is now, and what are their concerns?
2. Chat with your customers. It’s a great time to check in and ask what your customers need or want from you in addition to your existing products or services. Allow them to express their current situation and maybe there is something that you can help them with.
3. Host a webinar or make a video tutorial. Even if you have never hosted a webinar or made a video for your business, now is a great time to implement these types of marketing. They require some quality time for planning and creation, but once complete, they have great shelf life for your business marketing. If you enjoy the experience – make a series of how to or FAQs.
4. Business owners wear lots of hats and often have lots of piles. Spend a little time each day tackling the piles or cleaning out the old documents or organizing an area of your office or computer. This is refreshing and once you get in the habit, it will feel good to do this regularly.
5. You are an expert in your field. If you like to write, this is a match made in heaven. Create a blog and post it on your website and share on your social media channels. Blogs have a great shelf life and can be utilized in many ways.
6. Check out how your business looks online. Does it have a business profile on Google or other search engines? Does your business show up when someone searches for what you do? Do your clients and customers leave reviews for your business? If you need help with this, contact Yes You Can Marketing for a free consultation. We can help your business have a better, stronger reputation online.