Why Social Media Is Not Enough in Marketing Your Business

While social media has changed the speed and the way businesses are promoted today, marketing experts agree and explain that it is not the only the tool by which entrepreneurs can market their product and services effectively. Rather, it is one of the integral tools that make up a whole marketing technique. Look at your business from a bigger perspective and see how social media can fit in and provide support to your other marketing techniques.

Social media helps build an emotional connection between businesses and consumers. When people start following your brand's social media accounts, they're trying to get updated about and have a relational connection with your brand. If you're keen about building relationships with your followers, respond to their queries by sending personal messages. However, nothing beats face to face interaction with your customers. Your relationship cannot remain virtual forever. Thus, you should make an effort to meet your followers personally.

Proper participation in social media can be effective in pushing a sale. You can encourage your followers to give your new product or service a try by posting carefully crafted calls-to-action in your account wall. However, closing a sale do not usually happen on social media accounts. The latter can get people interested but not fully convinced to purchase. In addition to your socail media marketing, you must have a follow-up system that will ensure the closing of sale. In certain businesses, this is better done in person and not just online.

Social media is simply a part of developing a brand strategy. Thus, your social media accounts must display cohesiveness. The messages they communicate must all work together to uphold and promote your brand. Your followers in social media don't want being sold to all the time. Primarily, they want to acquire important information

that can help them solve certain issues or problems. Maintain a balance of information and sales messages in all your social media accounts.

How to Deal with Unhappy Clients Effectively

If you run your own business, the worst situation you'd want to experience is having unhappy clients. Presence of unhappy and unsatisfied clients can signal the downfall of your venture. While this can be a very difficult situation to solve, you can turn it into something positive and beneficial with the implementation of the right strategies. Here are some customer service techniques that will help you smooth things over.

Don't act on impulse - So, one of your employees notified you of a customer who is upset. You made a research and found out that all the mishap was caused by the customer and not by your staff. What are you going to do? Take a deep breath. Relax and release the anger or any negative emotion that is brewing inside you. Then, put  yourself in a customer service mode. All these will help you not to act on impulse and to always have the attitude to serve.

Listen actively - Your customer wants to be heard. Use a neutral statement in verifying what exactly happened. This creates a partnership between you and your customer. Refrain from solving the situation right away, to jump to conclusions or to cut your customer's explanation.

Put yourself in their shoes and apologize - Let your customer that you understand where he's coming from. Make sure that your body language also communicates your empathy. Apologise even though you think that the customer is the one who is largely at fault.

Communicate a solution right away - Decide on what you're going to do with your customer's concern with a definite solution in mind. Not presenting a solution will just complicate things. Moreover, it will create a bad impression on your business.

Four Ways to Market Your Business During the Holidays

Not all business owners are happy during the holiday season. Since people are busy gathering together and leaving work behind, certain businesses experience a slump in sales or leads. Is your business one of them? Yes? Fret not. All you need to do is to try out some marketing tactics that can help you pull through this 'off-peak' or 'lean' season.

Availability is Key

Most business are off during the holidays. This is a great opportunity you to be noticed by your target market and make the most out of a significant income opportunity. In your website, let your clients know that your available on holidays with longer customer service hours. You will never lose your clients to your competition if they can reach when they need your product or service.

Offer Huge Discounts

Consumers are always looking for great deals during the holidays because they are out to shop for gifts for their loved ones. Plan your finances and product prices or service fees ahead of time so that you can go with the holiday marketing trend and win new clients by providing huge discounts.

Reach Out to the Community

Are you running an online business? Apart from social media marketing, reaching out to people in  your community or locality during the holidays is also an effective way to promote your brand. If you don't know how to do it or where to start, consider becoming an affiliate of business groups and non-profit organizations that are experienced in creating holiday events.

Promote Giving

People generally feel obliged to give during the holidays. Take advantage of this holiday spirit to promote your business in a purposeful and subtle manner. You can advertise that a part of your client's purchase or spending will be sent out as a donation to a specific charity based institution.

Five Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Need to Hire Accountants

Most entrepreneurs refrain from hiring accountants because of the added cost it entails. Despite the cost, it is still important to consult a pro as far as the financial health of their businesses is concerned. Accountants can provide them with the information they need to manage their assets and save money for business success. Here are some insights that explain why entrepreneurs need to hire accountants.

Tax law knowledge – Accountants are updated with the tax law and system. Consequently, they are able to help entrepreneurs avoid tax violations that can cost them more expenses in the future. Moreover, accountants can advise entrepreneurs about various taxation breaks with the best value claim rewards.

Technical accounting knowledge – Accountants know the best software to use when it comes to creating financial statements and reports. They can help entrepreneurs achieve an organized accounting system for quick access to pertinent information.

Business asset management – Accountants are familiar with the effective handling of business assets. They can compute credits, debits, profits and losses with accuracy. Moreover, they can advise about the exact financial positioning of the businesses they handle.

Networking – Accountants are prominent professionals in the business community. More often than not, accountants have entrepreneur clients who belong to similar industries. Therefore, they have contacts who they can refer to the entrepreneurs they work with. A reliable referral system can help every entrepreneur build a very strong network of potential clients.

Sound business advice – Apart from accurate computations, accountants can also provide accurate assessments of the businesses they handle. Such reviews help entrepreneurs decide clearly about their succeeding business decisions and movements. Also, accountants can predict potential gains and losses upon which planning for business success must be based.

Top Ways to Promote Your Business

Promoting your business is not an easy task. Besides being time-consuming, it is also expensive. If you are budget-poor and time-poor, follow the tips below that can get you at par against your competitors.

Talk to your current clients - Make use the client base you have today. Talk to your clients and ask them value-based questions. This is best performed by someone not related to your company so that it will be easier for your clients to answer questions truthfully. Compose questions related to customer satisfaction. Ask for referrals too.

Practice creative marketing strategies  - Do you own a local diner? Instead of sending out promotional leaflets, send a creatively packaged brochure with a small gift like utensils with a tag saying 'dine with us'. Creative packaging is already in itself outstanding marketing.

Send out a press release - Search online and you'll see that most PR news wires offer their services for free. If you doubt your PR writing skills, don't fret. There are templates online which you can follow with ease. Also, you can check how the other press releases online are written. If you don't get it right the first time, you will probably get it the second or third time.

Engage in email marketing - Email marketing comes with a cost but it's not that expensive. Moreover, it's very flexible and capable of reaching out to a diverse and huge audience. Just make sure that your tracking options are carefully set so that you can measure monthly results effectively.

Things to Consider When Hiring a Marketing Consultant

Not all business owners are skilled in marketing their products or services. That is a fact. Some might be able to do so but there could only be a handful of them. If you're one of the unfortunate many, you'll need to hire a marketing consultant who can help you achieve your goals. Be guided by the following tips to find a trustworthy professional in your locality.

Know your business status and needs - When you know everything about your business and the path it is treading, it will be easier for your prospect consultants to help you.

Ask for referrals - Got colleagues who have their own marketing consultants? Ask them whom to refer. If they trust a specific consultant enough, it means you can trust the same person too.

Get connected - Perhaps, you stumbled upon the name of reliable marketing consultant during your online search. Contact her or him right away before it's too late.

Schedule an interview and ask for proof - Never hire someone whom you haven't interviewed and talked with in length. While interviewing your prospects, don't be ashamed to ask for proof or credentials. Ask about marketing specifics as well because every business's marketing needs vary. If you're not satisfied with the proof you have hand, contact your prospects' past and current clients and ask about their experiences of doing business with these professionals.

Why Traditional Marketing is Not Yet Dead

Many say that traditional marketing is already dead come the dawn of digital age. While some may agree to this, there is still a substantial proof in the industries today which shows otherwise. For one, traditional marketing makes use of traditional media which is preferred by the young and the old in so many ways.

For most businesses, traditional media it continues to serve as an important part of an overall marketing strategy. This is regardless the businesses' nature and target audience. Television and print ads are still two of the effective tools for raising brand awareness and business promotion at the local, national and even international levels. Both allow entrepreneurs and marketers to connect with broad demographic and psychographic profiles. They can communicate a marketing message to an audience who is older, not tech savvy and not social media dependent at all.

The traditional media will co-exist with digital media and the same goes with the marketing type each  of the two has produced. Some may say that the latter has totally changed the former but the truth is consumer behaviour has changed over the years. And this change brought about the rise of digital media and the somewhat dying state of traditional media. In conclusion, traditional media and marketing will remain in the years to come because not all consumers are hooked to the online space no matter how rampant its use is.