10 Ways Your Business Can Make More Money

Posted on June 30, 2020 by Giana Mandes

10 Ways Your Business Can Make More Money

All around us are ways for our businesses to make more money. The secret? Knowing where to look. We’ve put together a quick 10 item list of our favorite tips that you can apply to your business today to start making more money!Add Accessories

1.Add Accessories

That’s right, accessorize! Expand your sales reach by adding complementary services to your existing products. You can gain new clients while maintaining your existing ones. A great example is a local AC company who also offers insulation services to their customers. Think about what else you can offer your customers to add value to each one of your sales.

2. Look at Your Prices

The price of products and services all over the world is constantly changing. Make sure you are adjusting your prices to meet the current market. This can go both ways, remember if your charging too little, increasing your prices is okay! Know who your competitors are. Know what they are selling and how much they’re charging so you can position yourself accordingly.

3. Find A Partner

It’s time to partner up! Do some research and find companies that sell products or services that compliment yours. Reach out to them and see if they are willing to work together. Perhaps you are a photographer who partners with a local frame shop, or a party planner who partners with a bounce house rental company. Get creative and think outside the box, these partnerships will add little to your expenses while potentially adding a big boost to sales.

4. Beef Up Your Sales Collateral

What do you give or show your customers when teaching them about your company? Things like brochures, presentations, white papers, and other downloadable material are a direct reflection of your company. Do they portray your brand accurately? Do they create a sense of urgency? If not, update them. Your sales collateral should draw attention and generate excitement. You want your customers to know how great your products or services are and how easy it is for them to do business with you.

5. Get Your Existing Customers to Buy More

Of course, we want customers to buy more from us, but how? Bundles, discounts, and free shipping! Encourage your customers to buy more because there is something in it for them too. Bundle three and offer 25% off.

Do you ship your products? Perhaps you can adjust (or even eliminate) shipping and handling charges for a limited time to boost sales.  Create special discounts that you can offer your customers- remember, when properly marketed, discounts create a special (and urgent) buying opportunity in the mind of consumers making them take actionIncentivize Your Sales Team

6. Incentivize Your Sales Team

Your sales team is important, so remember to show them that. Make them feel special and recognize your top sellers. For a temporary boost, start a fun and friendly sales contest where your team competes for a cash prize. If it works, have another one with a different prize.

7. Rekindle Old Relationships

Reach out to old prospects and existing customers. Contact them regularly about your company and your awesome (and relevant) products and services. Incentivize referrals and make your customers feel as if they are a valuable piece of your success because they are.

8. Consider A Layaway Program

Depending on the type of business you run, layaway programs are a great way to offer credit to your customers. This allows them to pay on time without you having to incur financial risk.

9. Re-Evaluate Your Vendors

You’ve heard of spring cleaning, right? Well, look at this as spring cleaning for your business! At least once a year, examine each vendor you do business with. Are you happy with the service? Are you getting what you paid for? Can you find this same product or service somewhere else a little cheaper or more efficiently? If you’re not totally happy, start looking.

10. Get Some Help

As your business grows, so will your to-do list. If you are spending all of your valuable time doing things that don’t bring it any money, it’s time to hire someone to help!

Opportunity is all around us! We just need to take a closer look. With these quick but easy tips, you can start making your business more profitable every day.

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What is Pay-Per-Call Advertising?

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Giana Mandes

Pay-Per-Call is an advertising model that drives telephone calls from potential customers to paying business owners or advertisers. The rate paid by the business owner or advertiser is determined by the number of telephone calls received from those efforts. Below, we’ll give you the scoop on all things Pay-Per-Call and why your business needs it.

Why Pay-Per-Call?
There are many ways to get leads for your business, but not many methods are as efficient as Pay-Per-Call advertising. The value of having a lead live on the phone is immeasurable. It gives you the power to turn them into an actual customer within minutes. This means less time chasing and more time converting. You will make more money in less time with Pay-Per-Call advertising than other traditional advertising methods.

Who Benefits from Pay-Per-Call?
This method of advertising is profitable across the board but is especially valuable for certain industries. Here is a list of the most compatible verticals for Pay-Per-Call advertising.

-Home services (plumbers, contractors, carpet cleaning, locksmiths)
-Auto (windshield repair, tow trucks, repair shops)
-Health (doctors, personal trainers, nutrition consultants, dietitians)
-Financial (Tax, debt, consulting, investments, mortgage, personal loans)
-Insurance (Life, home, auto, business)
-Travel (Hotel, vacation packages, car rentals, travel agencies)

Direct Calls VS. Pay-Per-Call
So, what difference will a customer experience when calling your business through a Pay-Per-Call program versus calling you directly? None! Depending of course on the routing rules you choose, on a Pay-Per-Call program, customers will call a designated call tracking number that rings directly to you. To make sure the customer experience is exactly how you want it to be, remember to be sure calls are being sent to the right place! If using prompts, make sure they are clear and easy to understand.

What To Expect From A Great Pay-Per-Call Service
Every service provider you encounter will be a little different. If you are relatively new to the pay-per-call world, you should know a few things that separate the great from the not-so great. Let’s start with cost per call. There is no one-size fits all here! Location, time of year and industry affect the cost of your calls. For example, a call for a plumber in rural Nebraska will cost a lot less than a call for a lawyer in downtown Manhattan because it costs a lot more to get you that call in the first place. This will vary per industry. When determining if the cost is too high, think of how much time and money you spend to obtain a new customer now. If the cost per call is just a small portion of the revenue your new customer will bring in, consider that a green light!

Most providers will set some kind of minimum duration for a call to be considered a billable call, this threshold will fall anywhere between 0-60 seconds and if you’re lucky, even 90 seconds. The higher the threshold, the better! This will give you more time to figure out if you are talking to someone who is ready to buy, or just asking a quick question.

Our next high-ticket item? Quality! When shopping for a great pay-per-call service, be sure to ask about the quality of the calls you will be paying for. Are these calls relevant and exclusive? If not, keep it movin’! Your chances of closing are not going to be great if you are competing with five other companies for that one customer.

Last, but not least- tracking! To properly determine if your pay-per-call efforts are worth their weight in gold you need to be able to track them. You should be able to see how many calls have come in from the pay-per-call program along with date, time, duration, and inbound number in case you need to reach back out. Extra credit if your calls are being recorded so you can listen back and determine if those 60 seconds were worth it!

Great marketers know all the best ways to get you the most leads in the quickest and most cost-effective ways possible. Pay-Per-Call advertising offers higher conversion rates, more revenue and higher ROI than many other methods of advertising. Ready to hop on board? Reach out to your friends and expert marketers here.

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How To Let Your Customers Know You Are Open For Business

Posted on May 13, 2020 by Giana Mandes

During these challenging times, many businesses have had to drastically change their operating procedures to stay safe during COVID-19. Some businesses have shifted to delivery and curbside pickup only, some have shortened their hours, and some have had to shut down completely. With so many changes to our normal day to day operations, many consumers are left wondering if the businesses they need and love are still open for business. So how do you let them know your doors (physically or virtually) are open for business? Here is a quick 3 item list to answer that question!

1. SEO

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of optimizing your website to get organic or unpaid traffic from search engine results pages. When you employ a great SEO strategy, your clients will see more of you! They can then click through your website, shop around, look at your business hours and contact you with any questions.

2. Blog Posts

A blog (short for ‘weblog’) is an online journal or informational website displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest post appearing first. Having a blog is a great way to engage with your customers because you can keep them up to date with information about you, your business, and your industry. You can use your blog to communicate any operational updates to your customers, so they know you are open and ready for business!

3. Email

Simply put, email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message to a large group of people. You can segment your customers into different lists and groups allowing you to personalize content specifically for them. Email marketing is a great tool that you can use to build customer trust and loyalty, strengthen, and build customer relationships and most importantly, keep current customers informed and updated on your business.

Customers need your products and services to solve their problems and fulfill their wants and needs. With the use of the tools listed in this quick read, you can be sure that they will know you’re open for business!

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5 Reasons to Start A Business Blog

Posted on May 11, 2020 by Giana Mandes

We hear about blogging all the time but what actually is a blog? Simply put, it is an online journal or informational site displaying information in the reverse chronological order, with the latest posts appearing first. Businesses like yours can use this tool to post information related to their industry that both current and potential customers may find useful or interesting to read. In this article, we will give you five quick reasons why your business should have an active blog along with some tips about what to include.

#1- Drive More Traffic to Your Website

Let’s start with the most obvious, shall we? Blog posts have the potential to attract more customers to your website! One of the most powerful benefits of blogging is the opportunity that presents when your readers share your content. This improves your SEO, steadily making your site rise to the top of organic searches.

#2- Strut Your Stuff

Customers love to do business with companies that give back. Having a blog gives you the chance to tell your audience about all the charities and organizations you have supported and why they are important to you and your mission. Show off the amazing people behind your brand!

#3- Share Positive Feedback

60% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading their blog. Pump that percentage up by sharing some great testimonials to show your readers why they should do business with you.

#4- Build Customer Loyalty

You are the expert, so show it off! If you have an HVAC business, teach your audience how to get their AC’s ready for the summertime. Insurance agent? Share some expertise on different coverage options for life insurance and why everyone needs it. Help your readers solve their problems. This builds customer loyalty so when they need an expert, you know they will come to you.

#5- Develop Strong Relationships

Having an active business blog gives you the opportunity to develop relationships with new customers while strengthening your relationships with existing ones. Customer engagement is a huge contributor to successful marketing. When you create posts that are interesting and valuable for your audience, you will be able to connect with them in a different, more conversational way allowing them to reach out to you more freely and frequently.

While this list was a bit short, there are countless other benefits to having a blog for your business. Companies that keep an active blog get more traffic than those who publish once a month or less. Remember that quality is key, so if you do not have the time, resources, or expertise to write blog content on your own, you can hire a company to do so for you. The current average rate is typically between $150-$400 per post. Have more blog related questions? Ask us here.

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The Ultimate Workspace Organization Guide

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Shooger

The most important feature of a great workspace is functionality. More often than not, this goes out the window and we are left with papers, equipment and boxes everywhere, leaving little room (and desire) to complete our work. The recent pandemic has left many of us working from home in spaces that are just not set up for what we need. Whether you are working from home, setting up a new workspace or just need to improve the design of your office; this quick organization guide will walk you through designing a workspace that looks and feels great.

Clear the Way!

We get it, you have a lot of stuff. That’s okay, if it is not in the way of you walking around comfortably. Take a look around at the furniture in your workspace and remove any obstacles that may be in the way of anything you or anyone else needs to access. Sometimes if we are not used to entertaining clients in our space, it can be easy to fill the room with filing cabinets, desks and chairs that end up in all the wrong places. Do not be afraid to move things around and if you need to, get rid of them completely. Remember something as small as moving your desk may give you a completely different perspective and who knows, maybe even a whole new workspace!

Tackle That Desk.

Now that you have got space to move around, let’s look at the first thing you (and everyone else) is going to check out when they walk in- your desk. Grab a garbage bag and sit down! What absolutely needs to be there? If you don’t use it every day, find another spot for it. If you do not use it at all, throw it in the bag. File those papers, check to see if you need those receipts and throw out the snack wrappers. You won’t miss them, we promise.

Sort It Out.

So, you have filed all your papers and have thrown away everything you do not need. Now it is time to find a place for all your remaining supplies. As tempting as it may seem to throw them all in the top drawer of your desk, check out a few office supplies stores (or visit them online) and grab yourself some space saving storage containers! Organize all your things and arrange them in a way that makes finding them as simple as possible.

Update, Update, Update.

Remember, functionality is the key to a great workspace. What do you have in there that needs to be updated? This could be your slow computer, a few old printers that are sitting around taking up too much room or even that old coffee machine. Throw those printers away and upgrade to a new, functioning printer that frees up some space (and time). Run those updates on your computer and stop struggling with the old shredder that only takes two pieces of paper at a time. The more functional your equipment is, the more productive you will be.

Let’s Decorate!

You’re almost done, this is the fun part. Sometimes work is fun, and sometimes work is…work. Look around, is there anything you can see that brings you joy? If not, put up your favorite movie poster or maybe some pictures from your last vacation. If you have a nice sunny window, bring in a plant or two to lift your spirits throughout the workday. That dog calendar that is still in the giftbag…hang it up!

Recycle

To make sure we do not end up at square one in a few months, make it easy to keep the garbage and clutter to a minimum. Most of what we throw away in our workspace is recyclable. Papers, boxes, coffee cups, water bottles, etc. Set up a small but functional space for you and anyone else that comes in to recycle or dispose of anything you need to get rid of. If you have more recyclables than trash, set up a bigger container or receptacle and label them appropriately. The easier it is for you and your guests to clean up after yourselves, the less you will have piled up later.

Whether you are setting up a new work from home space, cleaning up your art studio or just need to make some improvements to your existing office, these few quick steps are sure to make your work area more pleasant to look at and more functional to work in for a smoother, more productive work day.

 

 

 

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