Maybe you are an entrepreneur just starting out. Perhaps you are a veteran small business owner. In either case, you probably recognize that with a deeper understanding of the data which drives your business, you will be more productive, your systems will be more efficient, and your business will be more successful.

This is true whether you are selling xylophones or zebras, physical products or virtual services. Understanding how people interact with your website or blog is crucial for the longevity and profitability of your business. That is exactly what Google Analytics offers.

Google is the largest search engine in the world, responsible for up to 90% of all web searches depending on what estimates you refer to. 40,000 search queries are processed every second by Google. This means that the traffic coming from Google to your website, whether paid or generic, can provide you with the best possible view of important business metrics.

Google Analytics is a Google product. It is a web-based application that reveals important traffic and behavior patterns in relationship to your online business. The free service has evolved since 2005 to answer, among other questions, the following:
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• How many unique and repeat visitors go to your site/blog each month?
• Which countries is your traffic coming from?
• Which websites, blogs and search engines are referring your visitors?
• Do your visitors access your business on their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop PC?
• Which web browser do they use?
• Which pages of your site attract the most traffic?
• What type of content engages your prospects and keeps them on your site, and what kinds of content have them leaving in a hurry?
• Which of your marketing campaigns and strategies are the most and least effective?

Understanding the answers to those and other important traffic questions is extremely powerful. Google has created an intelligent and free piece of software which integrates perfectly with your website to reveal important information you need for optimizing your site to grow your business.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!

Many social media marketing campaigns are primarily designed to help gain more social following, increase product/brand visibility or drive traffic to a website. Here are quick tips you should consider when rolling out your next social media campaign.

1. Reserve your username across all platforms. Reserve your username across all the social media platforms even if you do not need them now. This keeps imposters away and you may need those usernames some day.

2. Decide which social media platform(s) best suits your needs. Not all social media platforms are suitable for your kind of marketing campaign. Trying to build a presence and stay significantly active on all available social media platforms can be time consuming and counterproductive. Instead, you need to identify platforms that bring the best results and focus on them.

3. Optimize your social media platforms. Once you have decided on the platforms you intend to use, focus on optimizing your profiles in order to get more followers. A few items to consider include using a real profile picture, writing clear and comprehensive about pages for your profiles and including a link to your website.

4. Connect your social media accounts to your website. Having all your active accounts connected to your websites helps to keep the conversation going. Visitors on your website can link to any of the listed accounts and your followers on social media can find out more about your offerings.

5. Track mentions. This is where PR kicks in. Use available tools to track every mention of your brand across all platforms and find out what people are saying about you or your brand. Do not miss a chance to neutralize any negative talk.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!

Is my email marketing working? This question is probably on your mind if you use an email marketing campaign to promote your business. You should ask questions regarding the effectiveness of any type of marketing regularly to ensure your marketing efforts are producing the desired results.
 
Email marketing may be a cost-effective way to advertise your business but there is some time, money and energy involved in planning and executing an email marketing campaign. If your campaign is ineffective and nothing is done to attempt to make it more effective your business is wasting resources by continuing to invest in a marketing strategy when it is not generating profit for your business or even interest in your products or services.
 
It is important to regularly evaluate the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy; but it is more important to set goals to decide how to evaluate your marketing efforts. Without these goals it can be difficult to determine if your email marketing efforts are effective. For example, your goal may be to increase the number of sales you make per month. Checking numbers to verify you are generating more sales each month is a fairly simple process. However, if your goal is to generate more interest in your products you would use website traffic as opposed to sales to evaluate the effectiveness of the email marketing campaign.
 
Set realistic goals. Yes, it would be awesome if everyone who is subscribed to your email opened your big offer. It would be incredible if they all bought your big offer. In the real world, spam blockers are an issue and an open rate of 10 to 50% is good. In the real world, at least 90% of the people who see your big offer are simply not interested at that time. If you decide email marketing does not work for you because you only made 12 sales from your list of 500 (of which 200 opened your email) instead of the 50 you wanted it is time to take the plane back from Fantasy Island.
 
Customer surveys can be important for evaluating the effectiveness of your email marketing campaign. Asking customers how they heard about your products or services is an excellent way to determine whether or not many of your customers are being enticed to make a purchase based on your email marketing efforts.
 
Additionally, these surveys can be used to obtain more detailed information about the email recipient’s reaction to the email marketing campaign. Customers can provide valuable feedback about topics such as the layout and appearance of the email to the ease of readability of the content included in the email. All this information can help you design subsequent emails which incorporate many of the qualities previous customers found to be useful and avoid qualities which were viewed as useless.
 
Until next time…
 
Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!​

Entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for ways to boost their business. One of those ways is to become an author. A book does not have to be 100,000 words and hundreds of pages long. An eBook can be 50 pages or less, just make sure it is packed with solid, useable information.

A book immediately establishes the credibility of the author in their field. Customers feel more secure knowing the company they deal with has recognized established expertise at the helm. The release of a book can lead to greater media exposure and requests for speaking engagements which increases the visibility of the firm.

A book can be given away as a promotional item to new customers. If it is an eBook, there are little or no out-of-pocket expenses. An eBook can be immediately downloaded from a website or sent as an electronic file in response to a request. The contact information of the potential customer can be collected as part of the download process.

If you have great ideas for a book but your writing needs a bit of help, there are the options of collaboration – writing with another author or using the services of an editor and ghost writers. Hiring a writer to take your ideas and put them on paper in manuscript form is no different than hiring a copywriter for your advertising, or a public relations person to write your press releases. What counts is the content and that comes only from you.

Is Self-Publishing Right for You?
An eBooks can be easily formatted from most word processing files at minimal cost. If you want a hard copy of your book, you can use a publish on demand company. The fees are reasonable and you can print as few copies at a time as you need. You need to have your book, including the cover artwork and formatting all ready to go.

An offset printer is the most cost effective method of printing 500 copies or more, but you are responsible for all the formatting, interior design and artwork. 

If your goal is to see your book being sold in bookstores then you may choose to forgo the self publishing route and consider selling your book to a commercial publisher.

Mainstream Commercial Publishers
There is a bit more perceived value when a book is published by a mainstream commercial publisher rather than self published. Publishers vary in the types of books they are interested in so do some research. Some publishers only want nonfiction narrative, some cookbooks, others business books. There are a number of resources, both websites and books, which describe what types of books each publisher is looking for, their contact information, and often the name of the editor to contact.

Commercial publishers will pay you an advance, which is simply a fee for allowing them to publish your work, and take care of all the editing, formatting, cover design and marketing. The advances can run from a few hundred dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. Once your book is accepted, you do not have to pay the advance back, unless of course it is stipulated in the contract, but that is very rare. Commercial houses have the distribution and sales force in place to get your book into bookstores. Many bookstores, both independent and chains, do not stock self-published books.

The downside of commercial publishing is it takes time, from 12 to 18 months, to see your book finished and sitting on the shelf. You also lose a lot of control over the process. Most publishers take into consideration the author’s wishes as far as cover design, publication date, pricing and marketing, however they have the final say so in those decisions.

Know what publishers and literary agents want to receive. Most publishers will not accept unsolicited manuscripts, so do not send them one. Send a query letter which describes your book and why you are qualified to write it, to the appropriate editor at the publisher.

Most nonfiction books do not have to be completely written before the publisher offers a contract. You simply need a solid book proposal and a sample chapter to entice them.

Until next time...

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!​

I have had several business owners ask me why they need to create a marketing plan. They think going to a couple of networking events and posting about their product/service on social media once or twice will cause the flood gates to open with customers. These owners are shocked that they have very low (or no) sales and they say networking and social media do not work.

Creating a marketing plan for your business and individual products/services/events is essential to generate sales. I mention individual product marketing plans because you may have two products that appeal to two completely different types of people. Consider a car dealer. Generally, cargo vans are bought by businesses, however mini vans are purchased by families. As a purchaser of a cargo van, I want to know how much product I can fit in it. As a purchaser of a mini van, I want to know how many people I can fit in it.

Here are a few basics on what to include in your marketing plans.

Market Research

• Collect, organize and write down data about the market that is currently buying the product/service you sell. Some areas to consider: 
• Market dynamics, patterns including seasonality 
• Customers - demographics, market segment, target markets, needs, buying decisions 
• Product – what is out there now, what the competition is offering 
• Current sales in the industry.

Product
Describe your product. How does your product relate to the market? What does your market need, what do they currently use, what do they need above and beyond current use?

Competition
Describe your competition. Develop your "unique selling proposition." What makes you stand apart from your competition? What is your competition doing about branding? 

Target Market
Find niche or target markets for your product and describe them.

Pricing, Positioning and Branding
From the information you have collected, establish strategies for determining the price of your product, where your product will be positioned in the market and how you will achieve brand awareness.

Budget
Budget your dollars. What strategies can you afford? What can you do in house, what do you need to outsource.

Marketing Strategies
Write down the marketing and promotion strategies that you want to use or at least consider using. Strategies to consider: 

• Networking - go where your market is 
• Direct marketing - sales letters, brochures, flyers 
• Advertising - print media, directories 
• Training programs - to increase awareness 
• Write articles, give advice, become known as an expert 
• Direct/personal selling 
• Publicity/press releases 
• Trade shows 
• Website

Marketing Goals
Establish quantifiable marketing goals. This means goals that you can turn into numbers. For instance, your goals might be to gain at least 30 new clients or to sell 10 products per week, or to increase your income by 30% this year. Your goals might include sales, profits or customers satisfaction.

Monitor Your Results
Test and analyze. Identify the strategies that are working.

By researching your markets, your competition, and determining your unique positioning, you are in a much better position to promote and sell your product or service. By establishing goals for your marketing campaign, you can better understand if your efforts are generating results through ongoing review and evaluation of results.

Until next time…

Have a great day,
Susanne

Check out my upcoming workshops here!