One of these tools is e-mail marketing. This is a resource that allows you to send messages as broad or as specific as you’d like to multiple groups of people. These messages can be scheduled to send at any time, so once you’ve composed your message, you can schedule to send it, and then sit back and let the Internet do all of the work.

Many e-mail marketing programs, such as Constant Contact, have a feature in which you are able to see who has opened your message, who has responded, and who has forwarded it to others. This is a great feature because you can SEE your business growing, right before your eyes!

These programs also offer a variety of professional-looking e-mail templates to use, for you to get started with. These templates can be easily customized to suit your business’s needs.

Besides being an effective way to communicate with a wide consumer base, e-mail marketing is also very economical. There is no paper or postage costs, also making it a less labor-intensive process. Not only that, but you can send out e-mails as regularly as you’d like. E-mail marketing has an added advantage of being an environmentally friendly way of reaching out to a vast amount of people.

E-mail marketing gets the word out about your company and your services, and allows you to personally connect and get your message across to all of your customers. It is truly the secret weapon for all small businesses looking to get more exposure!

By Melanie Yates, Account Assistant

One of the most powerful ways to market small businesses is online.  A major 83% of Americans agree with the statement: “So much contact with companies today is “virtual” or online – that it’s more important than ever that companies prove to people who they are in everything they do or say.” (MS&L Global Values Survey)  The internet has many tools available to promote a business for minimal to no rates.  A company website can be your best salesperson.  In today’s technological age, it is often the first impression that a consumer obtains of your business.

In order for potential customers to even discover your website, it should undergo SEO or Search Engine Optimization.  SEO is the structuring and coding of a website so it is indexed higher up on a search engine page.  It is important to incorporate keywords and key phrases throughout your website.  There is also the option of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Campaigns to guide customers who may not know how to find you.  With PPC Campaigns, a pre-approved price is paid when the sponsored link is clicked, leading to quick results and increased traffic.

Besides your website, it is important to offer additional means of disseminating information, such as blogs.  A whopping 77% of active internet users look to blogs for further descriptions or multimedia such as links, graphics, or videos. (Technorati.com: State of the Blogosphere) Blogs further increase your website’s Search Engine Optimization.  It is also vital to allow readers to leave comments and interact with the blog audience so your business resonates with them.  Blogs allow you to direct the conversation about your company in an authentic, transparent manner.

A small company can also utilize guerilla marketing email campaigns to initiate conversation with new clients.  You can pay for large email databases or find email contacts online to use in direct mailings.  It creates direct communication with targeted potential customers and continued effective communication with follow-up emails to customers who respond.  Consistent emails keep your company brand relevant in a consumer’s mind as well.

Another economically practical method of interaction with potential customers is social networking and media.  Since 2006, social networking has grown 93% and 105 million Americans participate in social media. (Netpop Research LLC)  Social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Ning, YouTube, etc. have become extremely popular tools to promote businesses and their services or products.  They allow for increased communication between your business and your current customers as well as provide information for prospective clients.  All social networks sites can further support your other online marketing tools such as your website, blog and the information in your email campaigns.

So despite the economic downturn, there are a variety of inexpensive marketing tools available for small businesses.  It is important to have an efficient balance of your company website complete with SEO, blogs, email campaigns and social media to fully capture your current and potential customer’s attention.  The internet is a great economical option for marketing your small business and start-up.  Many of these services and more are available for small business promotion through communication agencies such as DScribed, Inc.  We can provide you with several marketing channels to create impressions for your company in a cost-effective manner.

By Giuseppina Tumminello, Account Assistant

While a person’s resume will only be seen by the company they are interviewing with, your website will be seen by anyone and everyone, so you want to make it as impressive as possible! Clients are looking for information about your company, and are attracted to eye-catching, professional-looking websites that are easy to navigate. Remember, the more appealing your website looks, the more appealing your COMPANY looks, so make a good first impression!

It is always a smart move to have a portfolio of your work in a job interview, even if its not required. The potential client may not be looking for samples of your work, but to have it readily available on your website makes you far more marketable than another company whose website has no samples of their work. The client can instantly decide if they want to do business with you, just by seeing the quality of your work.

A company’s logo is similar to what a person would wear to a job interview. This is the very first impression that the employer has of you. The certain fonts, colors, and designs in a single logo send a message to prospective clients. A clean, professional logo with a fun, little design would give off a better first impression than just the company’s name in an unimaginative font. Like the way you would dress for an interview, your logo should have some personality, too!

In this rough job market, it is more important than ever to give off the best impression possible. It doesn’t matter if you are trying to attract business, or if you’re interviewing for the job, you want everyone to be impressed with the most marketable you!

By Melanie Yates, Account Assistant

No matter how old I get, I will always appreciate the process of planting a seed and watching its growth.  And for all of you who are fascinated by this process as well: this is for you!

Planting a seed or an acorn is not much different than planting an idea, and watching an acorn grow into an oak tree is similar to watching your business grow and thrive.  Here are some of the many steps involved in creating a successful business:

Start looking: there are so many acorns, and so many idea possibilities out there!  You have to start at square one, brainstorm a bunch of ideas.  Of course, not all of these ideas are going to be winners, but like with acorns, the more you collect the more likely you are to get a beautiful, thriving oak tree.

Start sorting: now that you have a bunch of good acorns or starting points, you have to sort through them to find the perfect one to plant.  This is where DScribed comes in.  You bring us your ideas, acorns, and we can help weed out the weak ideas until we can collectively decide which idea is best for you.

Start growing: there are many ingredients involved in transforming an oak into an acorn and an idea into a business.  Just as water and sunlight provide sustenance for the seed, realistic goals and planning fuel the growth of your business idea. 

Start watching: by taking small steps, and following long-term goals, you will begin to see the growth of your beautiful business.  Like an oak from an acorn, your business thrives from a solid idea, and realistic goals.

Oak in the Acorn, plant the seed, watch it grow.  For more information on our Oak in the Acorn approach visit www.getdscribed.com 

By Becky Wool, Account Assistant

Marc Silberman, Account Assistant

“Big, Bold, and Colorful: The Key to Perfect Presentation”

By Dennis Freed

Let’s investigate what the BIG, BOLD, and COLORFUL rule means, starting with the rock group KISS. I was on a plane equipped with TVs on the backs of every seat. As I flipped through the channels, an interview with Gene Simmons caught my eye. I stopped to listen while he explained why KISS became a mega rock group, while so many other rock groups they had opened for never achieved their level of popularity. He talked about KISS’s experience in a battle-of-the-bands and why they came out of that day as the #1 band.

The KISS Logo

Gene actually said that KISS’s music was not any better than the other bands’ and that some of the other bands may have been even better than KISS. KISS’ secret was that they put the band’s name in big, bright lights. They wanted to emblazon it in the minds of everyone in the audience as they played. To this day, when you think of KISS, you think of two things: their costumes and the big, bright, colorful, lighted “KISS” sign. When the battle was over, everyone had KISS emblazoned in their minds, not only on that day but for years to come. KISS exploited the BIG, BOLD, and COLORFUL rule to its full potential. I bet you are envisioning the KISS logo as you read this paragraph.

The Importance of Presentation

KISS knew what my CEO knew. (See the discussion in the posting on “The 50-50 Principle.”) It is not just the content but also the presentation that must scream out to your audience. When my employees prepare spreadsheets for a presentation, they must target the audience with information presented in a way that anyone can understand the ideas and be excited to read about them. I explain to my employees that I do not care how trivial the presentation is; they should follow the BIG, BOLD, and COLORFUL rule, so they will be ready when it really matters.

When brought to a business level, creativity can make or break a company.  It is common sense that a client or an individual will favor a company with more creative and diverse ideas than a company that seems dull and stale.  Unusual ideas and attention grabbers are factors that help a company attract new customers and keep existing ones.  Why fit in when you can stand out from the competition?

Business is about working with other people and incorporating many ideas and concepts together.  In order to be successfully creative in the work place, an individual must be willing to view all perspectives and not solely his or her own point of view.  The more ideas, thoughts and perceptions brought to the table the better.  No one individual’s creative sense is similar to another’s.   By incorporating multiple creative ideas, your business can soar.  

Every day we are consumed with a multitude of thoughts and ideas.  What do we call it when we turn our ideas into a reality?  This process is creativity. Why keep amazing ideas bottled up inside our minds when we can use them to our benefit?

Since it’s vital to your business to stimulate creativity and then carry out your ideas, I have listed below three useful steps that can help you successfully channel your creativity. 

1. Listen to music and read anywhere and everywhere you can.  Music and reading are key to exploration and the discovery of new concepts.   
2. Free write and brainstorm. Take 5 or 10 minutes out of your day and just write about anything and everything that you are feeling at the moment.  Most importantly, do not lift the pen off of the paper until the time is up; this allows your brain to avoid interruptions.
3. Ask peers and family members for advice. Other people’s ideas can help boost your own creativity.

Use these steps when you feel as if you are in a creative rut.  And just remember, anyone can be creative!

By Stefanie Neckameyer, Account Assistant

• Your website is your customer’s first impression. 
  When a potential customer is referred to or stumbles upon your website it is their first glimpse of your business.  It will either entice them to read more, or repel them and force them to move onto the next website or company.  The average web user takes 2.5 seconds to decide if they should keep reading or close your web page. The customer will judge your capability as a company by how effective, informational, up to date and especially how user friendly your website is.  So it is important to maintain and update your website to have a modern and clean look.

• Your website is your customer’s main source of information. 
  Until a customer comes into direct contact with a representative from your company, their only source of information about you is your website. If your website is vague and has little information it won’t give the customer the confidence they need to contact your company and consider your services or product. Customers need to be provided with information about your location and services in order to make an informed decision. 
• Your website helps you reel in customers.

 If a customer hears about your company and is interested in your services but doesn’t have a card or a phone number, the first thing they will do is Google you.  Having a website allows this customer to contact you.  You may also have a client that came into your office or used your services but forgot or lost your phone number.  Having a website is insurance for those kinds of mishaps and one of the many ways to gain and maintain clients and customers.

In short making your website one of your business’s priorities will greatly improve your business. It’s important to realize that your website can be a customer’s first impression, their main source of information and a way for you to reel in and maintain customers. Therefore it must be clean, modern, up to date, effective, informational and user friendly.

By Elaine Valvezan, Account Assistant

Dreams. Goals. Success

Are you a freelancer looking to expand your business, and transform your dreams into achievable goals and real success?  Here are a few pointers:

• The general idea: What type of business? There are so many possibilities: Restaurant, Public Relations Firm, and Clothing Store, just to name a few.  Choose a focus for your business and make sure that you can answer a few questions before you move onto specifics.  For example, what is your business’ mission?  Direction—where do you see your business if five years?  Ten?  Even fifty?
• The specifics: Create solid, realistic goals, set your sights high, but not too high (don’t set yourself up for disappointment).  Ask yourself, whom, if anyone, you would like to go into business with.  Do they have the same dreams and goals as you do?  Good relationships with your coworkers are extremely important for any business, especially if you will be working directly with customers.
• Get creative: Every company needs an attention-getting logo along with a catchy phrase.  This creates brand recognition, and tells the potential customer something about your business.  Brainstorm, bounce some ideas around with a friend, and then narrow it down.  You may be biased, so don’t be afraid to ask others for advice!
• Contacts: your contacts and clients basically make your business!  You have to have a solid list of contacts, and maintain good relationships with them.  Note: maintaining good relationships, and understanding conflict management are extremely important for any business! 
• Organization is key:  Keeping track of payment, clients, and products can be hard without a good system.  Keep neat files of payments that you give and receive.  Most businesses use QuickBooks.  You can even download a free copy here.
• Set yourself apart: Why should someone give you business over your competitors?  What do you have to offer that no one else does?  This may be very difficult, but also crucial for success.

Good luck

By Becky Wool, Account Assistant

Why is Internet Marketing Important? Well, because the internet is how people get their information today. The internet is everywhere. People can search for anything from hotel rooms to puppy dogs. The internet has become a major tool any business today. Now you can reach people who don’t have time to stop and research your products or services. Bringing the business to the consumer is important in this fast paced world. Also, with the prevalence of smart cell phones, consumers have the internet with them at all times. This allows your business to reach an audience at work, home and the in between. And with the ever expanding popularity of social networking sites, a company can reach an audience on a more personal level and build a strong channel of communication between the company and consumer.

Life for the consumer was a little more time consuming before the internet became so popular. Information was gathered through research from newspaper, phone books and word of mouth. This research could have taken hours or weeks. A person would have to make numerous phone calls just to find basic information about a product or service. The more information the person needed, the longer the search would take. The Internet changed all of this by allowing massive amounts of information to be found at the touch of a button.

The creation of Google and other search engines has brought the world closer to information then any newspaper or phone book ever could. With Google’s map application, a person can find the actual address to a business and see it from a street view. All while in the comfort of their own home. With a couple of keywords placed in the search bar, a person can search through millions of pages that contain those keywords. This is the fastest and easiest way for consumer to find what they are looking. The goal for any business is to be on the top of that search list. A search of “Mac and Cheese” can pull up 1.6 million links to different websites.  The average person is not going to go past the first page so the goal is to be number one on that list.

With most American homes having computers with internet access, it would seem obvious that a company can reach a large audience/market by a push of a button.  With your message and image ready you can reach millions of homes worldwide just by clicking a few buttons.  Online Ads have become very popular when trying to reach a certain audience.  Ads can be designed to pop up on a screen when a person goes on a certain website or search for a specific term.  They can be a powerful tool in getting out any message.  These ads also bring the message directly to the consumer without the consumer having to look for it. These tools also have trackers or hit counters to record the number of clicks you have gotten for the day.

The internet has brought the world to a computer screen and now everything is out on the table.  A person can get information just with a click of a button. The internet has changed the banking, consumer and social world forever. Now ask yourself one question. How has the internet changed me?

By Keith Pratt, Account Assistant

But the truth is, without a dream, you wouldn’t have become an entrepreneur.  A dream to be the maker of your own destiny, to be paid a salary commensurate to your work, to work on your own terms, to create something beautiful–we all have our reasons.  It is our dreams that fuel our businesses and your dreams that inspire us to do what we do.

DScribed always asks: “where do you want to take your business?” It articulates everything we are…because we believe EVERY business goal, every personal dream, every aspiration is achievable IF you have the right strategy.  So, tell us your dreams, even if it seems crazy–hey, just a short time ago we were called crazy–crazy for leaving well-paying, secure jobs to follow our dream of owning our own business–and here we are!

So, this is for all us dreamers!  Inspire us, inspire yourselves!

http://getdscribed.com/blog/your-goals-and-dreams/