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Branding Your Small Biz

Elizabeth — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:51:27 +0000

Big-businesses can offer product or service with a “take it or leave it” attitude –small businesses however, are not afforded this luxury. The little guys –in an effort to stay in the game or grow—are often left to tweak the image of their product or service in different situations so that meaningful messages are conveyed to potential customers at all times. This creates a tricky situation for branding consistency. Below are a few things to keep in mind as you strive to brand and grow your business.

1) Potential customers need to have a clear understanding of what and who your business is before they will buy anything.

If your business is not self-explanatory, it’s important that you convey clear and concise messages about what you have to offer and the application of it –think elevator speech, and then where you’re going to publicize that info. If your business is self-explanatory, think about the image you’d like to convey to people and how you might set yourself apart from other businesses like yours.

2) Keep everyone on the same page.

It’s Important that businesses strive for consistency and cohesion with all publicized info. The way information is presented on Twitter, Facebook, and websites varies greatly, but because each of these platforms is so effective at relating to the customer on different levels, there is immense opportunity to enhance the image of your business. That being said, it’s important the customer doesn’t receive conflicting ideas. Social media admin need to have a clear understanding of what the short-term and long-term marketing objectives are and an overall understanding of how to put forth info and respond to comments in a way that aligns with the priorities and values of the business.

3) Maintain consistent logos, colors, and fonts.

While you may be a long way from the widely-recognized Swoosh, it’s important to remain consistent with these nuances. Some brand recognition is better than none. Brochures, business cards, website headers, etc. should all maintain the same look and color scheme.

Small-business is full of compromise. Next time you find yourself at a crossroads, weigh your options and stay mindful of your business branding. Would you like some hands-on assistance? See what Twelve Oaks Group has to offer.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth McPhail grew up learning about the trials, tribulations, and perks of small family-owned business. She creates and maintains websites and blogs, and in her spare time can be found on the water boating!

Successful Ways to Track Topics on the Web

Twelve Oaks Group — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:00:21 +0000

How often have you been curious as to how a particular topic is doing on the Web, you know, is it being talked about a lot or hardly at all? There are ways to track topics, did you know that? Read on as Twelve Oaks Group shares successful ways to track topics on the Web.

Google Alerts

A popular method, and a very successful way I might add, is through the use of setting up Google Alerts. It’s very easy to set up. Start with going to Google News and put in your topic that you want to search for (like Twelve Oaks Group, for example). Now scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the link that says “Create an email alert for Twelve Oaks Group.” You can do this for any topic you want. The final steps would be to add your email address and make your selections for what’s showing. Voilà, click on Create Alert. Then depending on how often you have chosen to have the email alert delivered, you’ll get an email anytime anything new pops up in Google.

Social Media

If you would be more interested in taking the social approach, then two good options are Google+ and Twitter.

1. Google+

Google+ is Google’s version of a social network. When you signed up for your Google account, you were automatically set up with Google+. If you were to go there now, you would type in your search topic. If you look over on the top right, you see a red button that allows you to save your search. To check your topics you saved on a regular basis, just go to your Google+ homepage, select the More drop-down list in the sub-menu where you’ll be able to see your Google+ circles, as well as your saved searches.

2. Twitter

Did you know you can save your searches for topics in Twitter — whether or not you use the hashtag? Yes, that’s right; you can. Just log into your Twitter account, type in your search query in the search box on the top right and click the magnifier. Presto, all the tweets that relate to your search come into view like magic. To save it, click on the search icon at the top of the tweets and choose either Save Search or Advanced Search.

Now finding that topic that you just saved is not so intuitive to find. Remember where you typed in your initial search on the Twitter homepage? Click on that again, and you will see all your search topics that you have previously saved.

3. Facebook

Some of you may be wondering if you can conduct searches for topics on Facebook. You can by searching a topic but at this point, it’s pretty hit and miss.

Niche Communities or Specialist Services

Depending on what you’re interested in, you may find niche communities or specialist services that you can get good information from. Reddit is a good site for a niche community.

Tracking topics and tracking visitors are just two ways that small businesses can get an edge on their competitors or become aware of emerging trends and technology in the business world. Twelve Oaks Group has many more useful topics planned that will help you become the leader in your industry.

Twelve Oaks Group

Tennessee-based Twelve Oak Group is unique in its approach to its customers. Each team member is committed to helping grow small business, making local government more accessible, and enhancing communities with their web design and consulting services expertise. We will not deviate from this approach!

What and Why Is Article Marketing Important to Small Business?

Pam — Sat, 26 May 2012 01:08:53 +0000

By now, I am sure you have heard of article marketing, right? Twelve Oaks Group saw something on the Internet the other day, so I thought I’d break down that article for you. Here is the nitty, gritty about what and why article marketing is important to Small Business.

What the heck IS article marketing?

Well, let’s say you write several articles and upload them to the Internet by submitting them to different article directories, or perhaps you outsource the writing and submitting of them to a freelancer. Article marketing is a form of advertising for your small business and is very effective for driving customers to your website.

According to Phil Stone, Internet Marketing Success Coach, in his article, “What is Article Marketing,” he indicates that there are actually three types of articles that can be used to drive that traffic:

• Articles for blog or web site posts
• Articles as press releases
• Articles sent to article submission sites

Combining these three tactics together provides small businesses with a very effective internet marketing strategy that can propel their business to increased traffic — and therefore, increased sales.

Why is Article Marketing Important to Small Business?

There are actually many benefits to article marketing; however, we’ll break it down to the 3 top reasons as to why article marketing is important to small business. Let’s take a look at what they are:

1. Visibility – Using the 3 different types of articles gives you a lot of visibility as more and more businesses read your articles. Think about it. Prior to purchasing products and services from a small business, potential customers want information on that particular product or service, right? This sets you up to being a subject matter expert. They don’t want to deal with someone that is not knowledgeable about what they wish to buy.
2. Brand Recognition – Building brand recognition takes elbow grease and time. Nothing worthwhile will ever happen overnight but you can do it. By using articles, more and more customers are going to begin to know your brand. The key to your success will depend on YOU making your content and expertise available to them where they can enjoy it in their own time.
3. Profitability – There are two sides to this. One side of the coin is that you won’t have any large expenses to worry about. As a matter of fact, you can publish articles (yes, including press releases) at many sites for free. Using this form of internet marketing can also attract additional revenue to your bottom line because it will increase your opportunities for sales. Article marketing can be used by any size business — large or small — Business to Consumer (B2C), Business to Business (B2B) or Business to Government (B2G) – nationwide or global. Article marketing can prove to be an effective source of additional income to your business for years to come and be a source of potential customers for life.

Twelve Oaks Group has lots of web services and internet marketing ideas that you can use for your small business. We’d love for you to give us a call at (731) 337-4330.

Pam

Pam Lokker is a master writer and proficient virtual assistant, as well as being Co-owner of Borlok Virtual Assistants.

In addition, Pam is Customer Service and Content Manager for the Twelve Oaks Group.

What Can You Do To Create New Content

Twelve Oaks Group — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:13:54 +0000

There are many ways that you can create new content. SocialMediaToday has 11 tactics to help create new content.

Reuse, repurpose and recycle. Some of the best content for your organization might be “evergreen”, meaning that it is not necessarily time sensitive. Consider repurposing speech transcripts, marketing presentations, or any audio/video that you may have from trade show presentations, webinars, seminars or any other content that you’ve already generated. Take some of those larger content pieces and break them into smaller content chunks that can be easily shared across social media channels.

Subject matter experts. The use of thought leaders both inside and outside of your organization as sources for popular content is increasing. News consumers appear to relate to content that comes from a “deep source” within an organization much more than traditional press releases cranked out by a PR department. Also, consider reaching out to subject matter experts outside of your organization for possible content about your industry or about your organization’s place in that industry. Prudential and Ameripriseare two organizations that are currently taking advantage of subject matter experts in a successful manner.

You can also contact Twelve Oaks Group. If you’re not coming up with fresh ideas on where to get content, we can give you some additional ideas. We can also help you with redesigning your current website. Why not give us a call at (731)-337-4330 right now while you’re thinking about it.