Growing your business

Offer an Incentive

August 16, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

Do you have a carrot (incentive)?

Whenever you send out a market research survey, the aim is to get people to respond. By offering an incentive to complete your survey, your response rate should increase.

Incentives can be anything from entry into a prize draw, a gift voucher for your business, a free gift or promotion for their business.

Before people start the survey, be clear about what the incentive is. Depending on the topic of your survey as well as the gift on offer, this can help people decide whether or not to open your survey.

Place the sign up form for the incentive at the end of your survey so participants will complete it before you give them instructions on how to claim their gift. Make the instructions clear. It could be as simple as entering their name and email address or postal address so you can deliver the gift.

If you are collecting personal details, let participants know what you do with it. If you are collecting it purely for the distribution of their gifts, say so. If you will be adding their details to your database, let them know that too.

With email addresses, include a box so people can opt in to your email list. If you are entering everyone in to a prize draw, let them know the results will be announced in your newsletter, giving participants an added incentive to join your email list.

Strategic alliance tip:

If you don’t have a product or service suitable to offer as an incentive, speak with your strategic alliance partners. They may be happy to donate a prize or give a gift to everyone who participates in exchange for promotion to your database, or give you a deal so you can purchase one or more of their products to offer as an incentive.

Filed Under: Customer Service, Growing your business

Marketing Monday – Silent Tagging

August 15, 2011 By Melissa 2 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about growing your Facebook fans with marches. Well, there is a new trend called Silent Tagging.

This works in a similar way to marches, however in this instance, a page will start a silent tagging update, and invite their likers to tag their page, then go and join the pages of the others in the thread, and return to the original thread and like the reply of the person whose page you have liked (I hope all this makes sense).

In many ways, they are the same as silent tagging. I have participated in a few, and hosted one on the Business Mums Blog page, and I have had the same issues with this as with the marches in that I will like, say, 20 pages, and only get 5 or so likes in response. I have also experimented with different pages to see if they get a better response, and it has been the same.

Silent tagging is fun, and I have discovered some fantastic pages, and I hope there are quite a few people who have discovered this blog, but in general, I have found them disappointing.

There is also the issue of quantity vs quality. I imagine that for both marches and silent tagging, having an information page, such as a blog, rather than a shop, you are more likely to get a better response. I know that I have joined pages where I have no intention of buying (eg I have 2 school age boys, so I won’t be buying cloth nappies or tutus!), however I have discovered some great blogs that I enjoy reading, and would now consider myself a regular reader.

With silent tagging, there is no doubt you will get more likes, whether or not these like turn in to paying customers is doubtful, however if you have a blog, there is a good chance you will get more readers.

Also, if you have one, make your welcome page inviting, and have a newsletter sign up – this may increase your likers as well as increase your newsletter subscriptions, and may also get you more genuine likers from silent tagging.

Oh, and when I do silent tagging, I still visit the page, apparently not everyone does it this way, instead just hovering over the link & using the like button there. I still like to know a page before I like it!

Edited to add: Since posting this, Facebook has ruled Silent Tagging to be spam. You will need to find other ways to grow your like base than Silent Tagging.

Filed Under: Blogging, Facebook, Growing your business

Saving Money on Packaging

August 11, 2011 By Melissa 1 Comment

Save money on your packaging

Packaging your products for safe delivery through the post is important, it can also be expensive.

There are some simple ideas to save money on your packaging materials.

Reuse clean sheets of bubble wrap from parcels you have received
Buy tissue paper in bulk
Buy wrapping and tissue paper on sale or in $2 shops
Shred junk mail mail to pad boxes instead of buying packing peanuts
Reuse packing peanuts from packages you have received
Buy envelopes and mailing satchels in bulk

These are just a few ideas I have come up with. I’m sure there are plenty more ideas. If you have any ideas to add to this list, please add a comment.

Filed Under: Finances, Growing your business

Random.org – an easy way to draw your competition winner

August 10, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

Random number generator

An easy way to grow your email list is with a lucky prize draw. Inviting people to enter their details via a form or writing them down in a table, then choosing a winner is the easiest way to get entries, however drawing them can be hard.

You could write down all the details on pieces of paper, or write numbers on pieces of paper, then draw them out of a hat (children have fun doing this), however if you have hundreds of entries, this is not practical.

A cool tool to use is the random number generator from Random.org. You enter the end number, and it will give you a random number in the range you have specified. All you need to do next is find the entrant with that number and you have a winner.

You may want to do a screen shot and create an image of the result to show people, however this may not be necessary.

Remember, with a random drawing competition, you may have to get a permit. Check with the gaming commission in your state.

Note: This is not a sponsored post.

Filed Under: Competitions, Growing your business, Promoting your business

Friday Five – Making the most of a march

August 5, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

On Monday, I talked about growing your Facebook fan base through Marches. Today I have a few tips to make the most of the marches.

Participate Fully – one of the comments I made on Monday was they only work if everyone participates fully. Well, make sure you are one of those people. If for some reason you can’t sit for the whole time and like pages, let the organisers know and be sure to come back later to finish the march.
Welcome people who post on your wall – A lot of people just like the posts on the wall. I’ve found that it’s a lot friendlier and you get a better response if your reply to each person to welcome them to your page. Some people may post a comment as well, be sure to reply to their comment, even if it’s simply to thank them for their comment.
Make your posts different – it may be tempting to post the same thing on each persons wall. This is likely to be seen as spam by Facebook and your posts will be hidden. Change your posts slightly each time and this can reduce the chance of your post being hidden.
Make a comment – when you are posting on walls of new pages, take some time to comment on the business. It could simply be that you like their products or photos. It doesn’t have to be long or detailed, just something to show you are taking an interest in their business & not just posting because it’s part of the march.
Post something on your page – With marches, there is the danger that your wall will be taken up with lots of posts by others, and your own posts will be pushed down. Take a couple of minutes to add some posts of your own. One of the easiest ways is to re-post a relevant blog post via Networked Blogs. For example, last Friday I was in a hug with Mums Who Make and re-posted the blog post about finding your hidden fans, especially as it was relevant to others on the hug.

I hope these tips will help you to make the most of any marches, hugs, tours, or any other similar program to help you grow your fans on Facebook.

Filed Under: Facebook, Friday Five, Growing your business, Promoting your business

Marketing Monday – Growing Fanbase with Marches

August 1, 2011 By Melissa 2 Comments

They have a number of different names – marches, share the love, hugs, cruise, bus tour, to name a few – but they all take the same form. Basically owners of pages sign up and then work through a list, liking pages and introducing themselves, tagging both the page that organised the march and their own page, and then going on to the next one, with the aim of growing their fan/liker base.

These seem to be gaining in popularity, so I tried a few to see how they worked. Over the last few weeks, I have participated in a few, and here are some of the things I have noticed:

Chose your march location – there are many different marches that exist. Some are for Australian’s only and others are International. If you want a primarily Australian fan base, then it is better to participate in Australian-based marches.
Liking a lot of pages – for the marches to work, you need to like all the pages who are participating. This will mean that you will like a lot of pages that you may not necessarily be interested in. Never fear, you can unlike them at a later date.
New likers – you will get new likers. To see how it goes, know how many likes you had at the start of the march and how many at the end. You will get people who like your page just because they are on the march, and may unlike your page within days or a week or two.
Hidden Posts – during the march, be sure to check your hidden posts as many wall posts may end up being hidden. Make sure to unhide those posts and continue on the march.
Welcome new Likes – not all marchers will post on your wall, but many will. Take some time to welcome your new likes to your page by replying to their posts.
Be active – if for some reason you need to leave the march, be sure to catch up the next day or as soon as you can.

Some of the marches I’ve been on have been quite disappointing, mostly because I will like 30 pages but only get 10 likes in return. In order for a march to work properly, everyone must stick to the rules and participate.

There is also the issue of quantity vs quality, but with anything if you keep your posts interesting and inviting, people will stick around. Don’t take it personally if/when people un-like your page.

I would love to hear your thoughts on marches, and if you’ve been part of a particularly good march, give them a plug and let others know about it.

Filed Under: Facebook, Growing your business

Friday Five – Reasons to move to your own hosting

July 29, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

Last week I talked about having your own domain name. This week is all about having your website in your own hosting space. Here are 5 reasons for moving your website to your own hosting space.

Flexibility of design. Many free websites are limited to using their templates. You may not be able to upload your own design to reflect your business and branding. Having your site hosted will give you much more flexibility in your design.
Flexibility of features. Many free websites are limited to what you can do, even a blog hosted on WordPress has its limitations. With your own hosting you can do much more with your webspace.
Support from your host. In most cases, a web host has great technical support to help you get your website online, and give ongoing support when needed. They will also keep an eye on things to keep your site online.
No Redirection. If you have your domain pointing to your free web space, there is a redirection. This may not hide the fact you are using free web space, so customers may notice and this can affect your credibility as a business. Having your site hosted will mean you don’t have to worry about this.
Pay by the month & flexible plans. Many websites will let you pay by the month and offer flexible options so you can upgrade your account as needed – as the size of your website increases as well as the traffic you get. This means that hosting is not as expensive as you think.

I hope this helps you decide to move your site from a free website package to your own host.

Filed Under: Friday Five, Growing your business, Promoting your business, Starting Out, Technology

Friday Five – Reasons to get your own domain

July 22, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

I have seen so many businesses starting out and using free web space. This is fine while you are just starting out, however as you grow, you really should get your own domain name. Why? I’m glad you asked, here are five reasons you should get your own domain name:

They are cheap. It may seem that a domain name is expensive, but in reality they are fairly cheap. A .com domain can be as low as only $10 a year.
Credibility. Having your own domain can give your business credibility. By investing in your business, it gives people the impression you are in it for the long haul, and are less likely to shut up shop and move away.
Protect your name. Registering your domain name will prevent other people from registering it! This may be obvious, however a lot of people don’t think of this. If you haven’t registered your domain name, someone else can register it, and I have heard of this happening.
Easier to remember. For potential customers, it is much easier to remember yourbusiness.com instead of yourbusiness.freewebspace.com or yourisp/~users/yourbusiness.
It helps with Search Engines. Your domain name is one of the many things search engines look at when indexing a site. From some of the reading I’ve done, some search engines don’t index sites without a domain name, or only index the home page. This may have changed recently, as the rules often change, but it is something to think about.

I hope these tips have helped you decide to get your own domain name. Many registrars and web hosts will let you point your domain to your free web space while you are getting things ready to move to a web host.

Filed Under: Friday Five, Growing your business, Promoting your business, Starting Out, Technology

Posting updates on Facebook

July 19, 2011 By Melissa Leave a Comment

When should you post updates on Facebook?

In April last year, I posted a question asking how often should you post on Facebook? The answers were interesting.

Earlier this year, I returned to part time work, meaning that I was no longer on Facebook during the day. This resulted in me missing updates from many businesses as they didn’t post on the times I was on.

So, to make the most of your updates on Facebook, find out when most of your customers are on Facebook. Are they on first thing in the morning, late at night or at lunchtime? Are they on more on a weekday or the weekend?

Unfortunately, the Facebook Insights don’t break things down by hour, just by month or week, so the time people are on won’t be answered here, but the day of the week may be.

The easiest way to find out what time people people are on is to ask. I have seen quite a number of people post the simple question “Who is around right now?” This is often followed by a game, voucher or some sort of prize draw to encourage people to reply. (Just remember, check the Facebook terms & conditions before doing any sort of competition to make sure it complies.)

The other way is to have a short survey asking people when they are on. Ask the day and the time.

Armed with this information, you can plan your posts as well as any auto feeds of blog posts, to be published the times when the majority of your likers/customers are online.

If you find that there are different times of the day that your likers and customers are on Facebook, you can plan multiple updates that fit with those times. You can also plan what will be posted. For example, you may have a blog feed that publishes at morning tea time, post a photo of a new product at lunchtime and details of your next market at bed time.

Another advantage of knowing when your likers are online and planning when you update is that you won’t be clogging up your likers wall with your updates.

Filed Under: Facebook, Growing your business

Friday Five – Using PlanBig

July 15, 2011 By Melissa 3 Comments

A while ago, I discovered a website called PlanBig. I honestly don’t remember how I came across it, but I’m glad I did.

I started browsing the plans, then, me being me, started to post with my answers to questions & soon got hooked.

Today’s Friday Five is 5 ways to use PlanBig to help you grow your business.

Get ideas – the primary focus of the site is to help people see their dreams become reality. So get on the site and create a plan for your business, blog, new product, brand, or whatever else you are wanting to achieve. As questions and get ideas from the amazing community.
Give ideas – as with any other networking opportunity, the more you get involved, the more you get out of it. Spend a bit of time browsing other plans and answering questions. Not only will this help people get to know you, but you are also likely to get people checking out your plan.
Promotion - on their blog, PlanBig often highlights plans on different topics (for example, one of my plans was featured in the lead up to Mother’s Day). They also promote plans who have had media exposure on their Facebook page. Also with their Social Channels on each plan, people can check out your website, blog, Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Networking - there is a great community of people on the website, and you never know who you will meet. By networking through your plan and answering questions on other plans, you can also grow your own network. Many PlanBiggers also post invitations to events to launch their plans, so there is also the chance to meet in real life.
Celebrate – when your plan is a success, there is the chance to celebrate. PlanBig do a great job of announcing completed plans, giving your business, blog or brand more exposure. It also gives you a great sense of achievement to mark your plan as complete.

So, if you want some ideas for your business, an extra push, or simply a new network, check out PlanBig. It is free to join, and to make it easier, you can even log in with your Facebook ID.

This is not a sponsored post. This is, however, a valuable resource for Business Mums to help them grow their business.

Filed Under: Friday Five, Growing your business, Inspiration