Do you feel like you need to slow down and thank your customers? Running a small business involves a hectic, crazy schedule. Each day's agenda is packed full of multiple responsibilities; staffing and managing employees, customer service, business planning, marketing, cash management, and basic bookkeeping, to name just a few. Small business accounting could be of the most important areas you might want to focus on along with other things. Maintaining systematic records of your finance could help you make informed decisions when it concerns future areas of investment. This is especially important with startups and small businesses as capital tend to be at a premium. While you can use an online accountant such as Wizz Accounting to reduce some of the stress of running a business, it still can feel pretty overwhelming at times. Each business is difficult in its own way, it has to be a specific market involved and have a product to market. For example, a food branding agency might be helpful if you're struggling to brand your product in a very easy and fast way to be positive for your business. As we move into this especially thankful time of year, here are a few ideas of ways to reach your customers with a sincere "thanks." Don't Give Gifts This sounds backwards, yes? I spend most every waking hour at home trying to move things out of my house. I don't need things, and I'm guessing I'm a target profile shopper for many small businesses (working mom, middle-aged, non-hoarder, suburban....). While there are times to use corporate gifts suppliers, such as when you are trying to promote your business with merhcnadise, you shouldn't give loyal customers anything they don't really need. What do they actually need? If you work with clients who deal with a large number of files, you could give them something to help with storage (you could get some advice here about what to look for when purchasing flash drives with your company logo on), which could be useful to them. Think about yourself too - your customers probably need similar things to you - at the end of the day, we're all human. What do I need? Time. I need time. What can you give your customers to give them more time? Wrap it in a "thanks" and you'd have my business forever. Host a Free Learning Event At the local community theatre at which I volunteer, a patron recently tweeted: I contacted her to learn more about her "session." It is a complimentary event she holds to teach communities about safe social media for their kids. The theatre is going to bring her in to hold this event for the families of students at the theatre. It's a win-win for all involved. Our invitation will cite, "As a thanks for being part of our community, we have organized this complimentary session..." What a great way to give them something that helps the kids we serve. Don't Spam Them Quit trying [...]

Are you spending money on social, but would like to get even better Facebook advertising results? If you have launched into the world of social advertising, you have witnessed why it's so exciting. For literally a fraction of what we spent in the past on print advertising, you can achieve much more affordable, measurable and speedy results with Facebook advertising. While you can save money on print marketing by investing in your own slitters cutters creasers machine and creating your marketing materials in-house, if you are trying to reach a younger, tech-savvy audience then Facebook advertising is the way to go. Why is Facebook Advertising So Effective for Small Businesses? Facebook has a ton of information that allows it to "know the people" better than you can. You know your business, but Facebook knows the preferences, interests and demographic details of the buyers. Also, Facebook is non-interruptive. A well-created ad feels like part of the stream and is interesting to the reader. Finally, Facebook is very visual, which allows it to compete as a compelling platform more effectively. When people hear information, they're likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. (Source) To ramp up the effectiveness of your Facebook advertising, here are some tips to optimize your results. Know Your Goal To be effective, you should start with the end goal in mind. Know what is it that you'd like to accomplish with your ad before you do anything. You also need to know your Facebook Budget before you do anything so you are not spending too much or too little on your ads. This will affect how you write the copy, select an image to use, and of course, chose the target demographics that will receive the ad in their streams. Goals could include any of the following: Increase your number of followers. Drive foot traffic to your location. Promote sales. Sell tickets to an event. Get people to your website. Gain market name recognition. Visualize Your Target Knowing to whom you are advertising for this purpose is key. This "to whom" is called a persona. A clean detailed persona is one of the most important things you can do for effective advertising. For example, writing a letter to your mom is very different than writing one to your nephew. This explains why there are so many different "categories" of birthday cards at the drug store. You simply will lose effectiveness if you try to write ads that are for "everybody." Before you get going, answer some basic questions about your target profile, such as: Gender: Male or female? Age: Milennial? Baby boomer? Neighborhood: Suburbs? High-rise? City? Suburban? Interests: Music? Fashion? Kids? Health? Parents: Does this person have kids? If so, how many? What ages? Misc: What type of car does he/she drive? What are his/her politics? Educational background? Income? Typical day? The more detailed [...]