Today’s social media platforms represent enormous opportunity as well as enormous risk, as users increasingly share their opinions about businesses they frequent. If you aren’t paying attention to what your customers are saying about you online, then you’re leaving yourself open to their negative comments, while also potentially losing opportunities to react to positive reviews. To help manage your online reputation proactively, it’s imperative that you reach out to customers and ask for their testimonials. You can then use these positive reviews to implement reputation management strategies that attract positive attention for your brand. For instance, incorporate user review features on your Website that allow your customers to review products they purchase from your company. When a customer makes a purchase, send a follow-up email, allowing enough time for the item to ship and the customer to receive it, and ask for a review. You can then post the reviews on Facebook and Twitter as well as incorporate social features on your site that let users share their reviews, “like” your products and so on. If you fail to nab these opportunities, then you’re leaving it to your customers to post their opinions in their own social pages, where you likely won’t have an opportunity to respond to their comments. You also risk having these comments dominate in search engine results, as opposed to having the positive outweigh the negative. With proactive reputation management, you’ll create a positive impression with your customers. You’ll also have a better chance of getting more customers, as prospects read the good reviews and make their buying decisions.

Getting buyers to your Website is only half the battle in terms of your online marketing efforts. Once they’re there, you want them to buy — not click elsewhere or, worse, get nanoseconds away from a purchase only to abandon their shopping carts. It’s these abandoned carts that can be the most baffling. How could they get so close to buying and then simply click away? The answers are complex, but there is hope. Try out these five simple strategies, and start increasing your ecommerce conversions today: 1. Keep it simple. How many people do you know who like filling out long forms? Probably not many. Limit the first page of your checkout page to requesting the customer’s first name and email address. The reason is twofold: You’ll keep the customer engaged and moving quickly through the checkout process, and you’ll also have his or her contact information in case that customer abandons the cart. That way, you can initiate an abandoned cart nurturing campaign via email if necessary. 2. Follow up quickly. Re-engage with abandoned-cart customers right away, at least within 24 hours, to reinforce the reasons they wanted to buy your product in the first place. The more you can remind them of the connections they had with your brand and your products, the more likely they will be to revisit your site and complete their checkout. 3. Be helpful. Don’t assume your customer abandoned the cart because of price. Instead, follow up with an email expressing concern that a technical error may have prevented the customer from completing the order. Use it as an opportunity to highlight your competitive advantages, such as above-and-beyond customer service and unbeatable quality. Include a customer service phone number in case the customer wants to speak with someone or needs help completing the checkout. 4. Make a special offer. Your first or second follow-up email can include a coupon as an incentive to complete the purchase. Doing so will increase your conversions, particularly if the customer abandoned the cart based on pricing.  5. Be persistent, but not pesky. If your initial first or second emails don’t result in conversions, try offering more information about the product or your company. For instance, it’s a good idea to have some customer case studies and testimonials in your back pocket from customers who have raved about your products. Gently remind customers about your business without overwhelming them, as too many emails could mean opt-outs. By addressing multiple concerns in your abandoned-cart email campaigns, including shipping concerns, product benefits, pricing considerations and more, you’ll be more likely to touch on the reasons that a customer clicked away. These automated messages can prove priceless for your conversions.

A business’s success in Direct Mail Marketing depends on the type of the business and how diligently it is done. There are certain businesses that are a great fit, especially the ones that require building a local presence or presence in defined geographies. However, there are certain businesses that are not such a good fit. For example, businesses that rely primarily on internet users and have products and services that can be consumed only in the online context. Never the less, Direct Mail Marketing offers certain advantages that set it apart from other marketing channels – 1. Directly targeting your customers A good quality mailing list, crafted with the right selections and purchased from a reliable and reputed source that updates their data frequently, can help you connect with people who are more likely to be interested in your products or services. Whereas if you focus on internet traffic only you are likely to get generic visitors who may or may not be interested in buying from you. A mailing list can help you targets women, seniors, other businesses etc. There are a number of Demographic and Behavioral variables available to select the right audience for your business. 2. Flexible spending Direct Mail Marketing Ad campaigns give you the opportunity to spend as per your budgets. Sending postcards, letters or brochures is a cost effective solution to get your message in the hands of your customer. You can also choose to have your offer included in coupon books that have a large reach and the cost is split with other businesses. 3. Reach more customers For most small businesses, a number of their potential customers are not computer and internet savvy. Direct Mail Marketing helps reach that segment which is not likely to find your business or learn about your products on the internet. And even if most customers were using the internet, just by building a website you cannot make sure that they will frequently visit the site and purchase from it. Direct mail will end up in the hands of the people that you select and the communication will be tailored for them. 4. Promotions and deals increase sales Sending promotional offers and coupons that are tied with holidays or major events for your customers (for example their birthday or anniversary) can be an effective way to realize sales growth. And doing that on a regular basis with controlled pricing segmentation can even impact the life time value from those customers. In summary, Direct Mail Marketing can offer many advantages that other marketing channels don’t, as long as the campaigns are designed and executed well.

If you’re regularly sending emails to your customers, then you might already know the value of email campaigns. With a low capital outlay required and a high potential for return on investment, email is one of the lowest-cost marketing mediums you can employ. There are, however, special considerations for email marketers hoping to capture the attention of users viewing their emails on mobile devices. If you don’t how many of your recipients are viewing emails in this way, then you could be missing out on sales from a critical segment of the population. By following the simple tips below, you’ll engage mobile users and convert them into buyers — thus broadening your customer base beyond the traditional email inbox. Offer both HTML and text versions of your emails. This is the simplest way to ensure that all users are able to view your messages. Survey recipients from time to time to determine their preferences for either HTML or text emails. Restate your offer or subject line within the body of the email, preferably as the first line of the message, right before “If you can’t view this message, click here.” Users will be more likely to read and act on your message if they can instantly understand your offer. Side note: Make sure your subject line is concise and that it clearly conveys your offer. Track responses. Measure which recipients are opening your messages on mobile devices, and segment them into a special group if they represent a significant portion of your audience. Incorporate social media. Customers who use smartphones likely access Facebook and Twitter and would be interested in following you on these social mediums. Include your social media URLs or icons on every email so that you’ll build a social media fan base. With consumers increasingly using their smartphones to access information, mobile marketing must be a key element of your email marketing campaigns. The good news is, it doesn’t take much to incorporate it into your business strategy and begin reaping the rewards.

Conduct your own competitive analysis from your customers' perspective. Knowing and understanding what the customer sees is the most important competitive anlaysis you can do.

One simple way for a small business to create a mailing list and print a database is by using Microsoft Excel. Here are some simple steps for building and printing your mailing list in Excel: Experian also has an easy-to-use small business mailing list builder tool. Once you've built your list, you can easily export it in Excel (or any other) format. Step 1: Open Excel Step 2: Type the names of your data labels in the first row (e.g. First Name, Last Name, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, and Zipcode): . Step 3: Type or paste in your customer or lead list directly into Excel. Step 4: Save your mailing list. Step 5: Open a MS Word document Step 6:Go to the Mailings Menu > Start Mail Merge >Step by Step Mail Merge Wizard If you have an older version of MS Excel, you can access a similar wizard with this by selecting:  Tools > Letters and Mailings > Mail Merge Step 7: Choose how you want to print your mailing list. You can choose to print letters, envelopes, directory, etc. In this example,  we will print address labels for a direct mail campaign so I'm selecting labels. After making a selection, click on "Next: Starting document" at the bottom. Step 8: Click on "Label Options" Step 8: Select the Label Vendor you will be using to print your labels. Step 9: Click on "Select Recipients"   Step 10:  Select "Browse" to find your mailing list excel spreadsheet. Step 11: Select "Ok" when you get the "Select Table" window. Step 12: You will get an option to remove anyone on your mailing list that you don't want to include -- and then press OK. Step 13: Arrange your labels on the label or document you are working with. Step 14: Save, Update All Labels, and Print.

If you are trying to sell something you don't always have to appeal to your customer's logic. If you can play off of emotions, you can easily make a sale. In many cases actually appealing ot emotion is stronger than appealing to logic.

It doesn’t take a ton of money to market your small business. All it takes is determination, combined with a little strategy. In this, the first of a multipart series, I’ll walk you through basic, low-cost marketing techniques that any small business can use to boost their marketing to the next level. On the agenda today: Become an online expert. By showcasing your expertise, you’ll gain customers’ and prospects’ trust. They’ll see you as a credible authority on topics related to your products and services. And with repeated exposure to your brand, they’ll become loyal customers. The first step to becoming an expert is to research blogs, forums, email discussion lists, social media sites and other user-generated content relevant to your company. Start getting involved in these conversations. Offer insightful tips and advice that  solves problems and answers questions. You can carry these conversations into your email campaigns, too. Simply create e-newsletters with content that answers burning questions. For instance, if you own a bakery, you could write about the differences between baking soda and baking powder. Not only does this approach provide a valuable service to users, but it also casts you as the resident expert on the topic. With time and persistence, you’ll generate plenty of new and repeat business.

Simple tasks to take during the summer months to help your business stay on track.