Understanding the ins and outs of financial management is important for every consumer. Being educated on managing their credit, understanding the impact of a credit score, or grasping simple bookkeeping can be intimidating without the proper training. When it comes to business owners, it is even more important, because improper management of their finances can be detrimental to their bottom line. However, with current regulations in place, it makes it difficult for consumers and small business owners to know where to turn to seek out advice without having to pay a steep price for assistance.

Small businesses who send direct mail advertisements to their customers find this to be a highly effective marketing strategy. Where emails can be deleted immediately or never even looked at, people still head to their mailboxes daily. According to the United States Postal Service, 98 percent of people retrieve their mail daily, and 77 percent of people sort it immediately. This gives companies access to an audience who could potentially seek out their business right away. With direct mail marketing, there is a high potential Return on Investment because this type of advertising is extremely targeted. Small businesses can market just to the consumers they think will be most likely to purchase from them – rather than mass advertising through television on email campaigns. Direct mail proves to be a more personal way to reach potential and existing customers, and it encourages businesses to build a relationship with their customers. There is measurable feedback on direct mailing campaigns because businesses can directly count how many responses they see to their advertisements or how many people use their coupons, for instance. To make the best use of direct mail marketing, businesses can purchases data append services to update and provide more information to their existing prospect or customer lists. They also can purchase mailing lists relevant to the types of people they are looking to sell to in order to best target prospects in the area. Sources http://www.delivermagazine.com/2012/01/outside-the-box-direct-mail-continues-to-prove-its-worth/ http://oneims.com/blog/2010/03/22/6-benefits-of-direct-mail-marketing-campaigns/ https://www.usps.com/business/direct-mail-benefits.htm

If you've been an entrepreneur for a handful of years, you might think you have everything figured out when it comes to your employees.  Right?  Sadly, you may not.   Don't get me wrong, by now you know what you're doing and how to best run your business.  But just like your first day as an entrepreneur,  you may still be making some mistakes.  They may not be the same rookie mistakes as you've made before, but rather are bigger mistakes.  Here are two to avoid when it comes to your employees – which are an extension of yourself, your brand, and your business. Business Mistake #1: Good Talent Costs A Pretty Penny If you're a believer in hiring low-wage employees and training them to get whatever kind of work you need to be done is the route to take, please think again.  The problem with hiring that way is that you'll spend the majority of your time micromanaging your employees instead of focusing on growing your business.  Think about hiring people who are smarter than you are – and compensating them very well so that they'll never leave.  When you are a new business owner, this may be a tough concept to grasp.  If you hire smart employees, not only will they do good work, but you won't have to train or micromanage them as much. Plus the odds are that they'll stick around with you for a very long time if you treat them right. Business Mistake #2: Don't Be Too Generous Sometimes business owners can be a bit too generous with co-workers.  When you give in to everything they may ask for, they show gratitude.  Oftentimes, that quickly fades and employees start expecting things from you – regularly.  Look at it this way.  You have to work hard to earn your money.  Your employees should too.  If someone wants a new laptop or desk, don't just give it to them.  Instead, ask why they deserve the new laptop or desk.  You could very well be surprised by what you can get your employees to do by making them earn the things they want.  The best part about operating that way is that it will give your employees a sense of accomplishment. The takeaway: Mistakes will be made.  There's nothing wrong with making them as long as you learn from them.  In other words, don't be afraid to fall – get right back up and prevent the same mistake from happening again.  All entrepreneurs make mistakes.  What separates great ones from the pack, is that the great ones learn and move on.

Working with family at a small business is hardly unusual.  Often enough complications arise that relatives don't always foresee.  Most common is the fact that people simply underestimate the pressures of running a startup might put on family relationships.  If you're not careful it can severely damage both your business and the family. Having a successful professional relationship with a family member is not always easy.  There are a few things that can help keep the personal relationship intact while the focus is kept on growing a successful business venture. 1. Trust Is Everything – All successful business partnerships must be built on trust.  Period.  Regardless of whether it's with a family member or not.  You need to get to a place of common understanding that puts the business before the personal. 2. Recognize Each Other's Strengths and Weaknesses – It's not easy to admit your weaknesses, but if your business is going to thrive in these times, it's crucial to clearly outline at the onset the strengths each family member brings to the company and the subsequent roles played by all.  Defined roles and responsibilities help to avoid overlaps and disagreements down the road. 3. Listen And Compromise – Enough said.  (And if things do go wrong, never say "I told you so.") 4. Passion Is A Must – Separating work and home life is not so easy for most entrepreneurs.  The business is your passion.  That's why you're in it. Key takeaway: Before deciding whether to go into business with a family member, ask this: Can we work together?  In theory, you may think so.  In reality, you need to have a relationship built on trust, patience, communication, and like-mindedness.  Launching a company is a high-stress, high-pressure endeavor.  You need the right people on your side.  If you've found that in the past, your relationships with your family members become strained under pressure, rethink your business plans.

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.

Here are a few questions you'll need to ask yourself when it comes to how your customers perceive you versus your competition. When you begin to think about competitive analysis, ask yourself this: What do my customers actually see when they compare my business to my competitors'?  After all, your customers' perspective is the only one that counts. Therefore knowing and understanding what your customer sees is the most important competitive analysis you can do. Ready to beat your competitors like a drum?  Start thinking like a prospective customer.  Your customers and prospects don't live in a vacuum.  They are sophisticated shoppers.  Their perceptions of price, value, quality and service are actually very high.  What happens whey they compare you to the "other guy?" Sometimes you can focus too much on what is special or unique about your own business that you forget about your competition.  And yet, your customers and prospects will see and read your competitors' marketing materials along with yours.  They will talk to them on the phone.  They will price products, review guarantees, meet with sales staff.  You see, your customers are constantly conducting their own competitive analysis. You need to be doing the same thing so that you can better understand what the customer sees.  You need to know where you stand in comparison to your competitors from the customer's perspective.  Start conducting your competitive analysis the way your customer would. Here are some questions to ask yourself: 1. How do my ads and promotions compare to my competition? 2. How do my other marketing materials compare? 3. How are my competitors reaching my prospects?  Direct mail?  Incentives?  Specials?  Coupons?  Give-aways?  Call and ask! 4. How good are my phone operators compared to my competitors'?  How often do prospects wait on hold, or have to leave a message, or have to go through layers of automated messages?  How soon does my staff return a call?  And check how this compares to the "other guys" out there. 5. How good are my competitors' sales staff?  What are their presentations like? 6. What time, volume or seasonal incentives does your competition hand out? 7. What's the follow up like with my competitors? 8. How good is their offer?  How do they build value right into their offer?  What are their guarantees and return policies?  How good is their customer service? 9. What are they doing to stay in contact with customers? 10.  And finally, what do they do poorly?  Why do customers leave them and come to me or go somewhere else?