One of the best ways to improve your business is to get feedback from your customers, and then implement changes and improvements based on that feedback. However, it can be a daunting task getting the feedback from your customers if you don’t know how to make it part of doing business with each customer. Gather Information from Analytics When it comes to websites you can learn a lot about your customers’ behavior by looking at Google Analytics (and other site analytics offerings like Facebook). It’s amazing what you can learn by looking at a heat map such as the kind at ClickTale.com. By being able to visualize what individuals are…

Telling the best story of why you do what you do can attract clients. In fact, telling your story can do a better job at client attraction than listing the features of the work you do. The trick is weaving the story with the solutions you provide and how that benefits your future clients. Stories have been used for ages to convey an idea, suggest solutions, and teach morals to others. Stories define our childhood, and give meaning to our lives. Your story, told in the right way, can attract more clients that you thought possible. Stories can be used to tell who you are, why you’re here, what you…

There are different reasons to create a business or mission statement for your business. Sometimes you are creating it to motivate your business partners, yourself, and stakeholders. Other times you create a business mission and vision to help you understand how to better market to and provide value to your audience. You can actually create a business mission and vision that aligns all your functions, hopes, and dreams into one. Answer Questions to Create Your Business Mission To create your business mission, answer the following questions: Why do I exist? What do I do? How do I do it? Who do I do it for? What value do I add?…

Communication involves the participation of at least two parties. Communication can be written, verbal, and even non-verbal. On a blog, you’re likely more concerned with written communication unless you create video blogs, in which case you’re using verbal communication that will include body language (non-verbal) and other cues to get your message across to the other person. But the real key to ensuring your message gets across to the receiver is to understand that it’s your job as the message giver to deliver the message in a way that it’s understood by your audience. Here’s how to make sure that your message is heard. Understand and Like Your Audience Even…

Finding software that can help you meet your digital publishing goals can be difficult because there are so many options and it’s hard to know what to choose. You’ll need to know what kind of magazine you’re going to publish, whether you’re going to want a print edition, whether you plan to run advertisements, and your budget, before picking the software you’ll use to create and publish your magazine. Here are some options to consider. Adobe Digital Publishing – Adobe has introduced its Digital Publishing Suite which is available now in the creative suite. It uses InDesign CS5 plus a digital content bundle to make a powerful program to enable…

If you are starting an online business, you are joining the ranks of hundreds of thousands of others. There are many tasks to achieve when it comes to your online business. One of the most important and perhaps the most beneficial ways to achieve success is to set clear goals for that business. There are several ways on how to go about setting clear goals. For many individuals, their goals are so broad that success is something that never happens. However, you can learn to rely on your set of goals to achieve success if you set them up correctly. How to Set Clear Goals for Your Online Business 1.…

When you’re working on your own home business, one of the hardest parts is creating and maintaining a realistic schedule for work and life. Most people start their business believing they will have at least 40 hours a week available as “billable hours” but soon learn that nothing could be further from the truth. But, you can organize and craft a schedule that allows you to make the most of the time you do have. Know Your Audience Like with most things to do with your business, it’s imperative that you know who you want to work with. What types of client will you get along with best and what…

It used to be that having lots of links, any kinds of links, to your website guaranteed good placement in the search engines, but the days of reciprocal links with irrelevant sites are long gone. Today, search engines (and by search engines you know we mean Google) require that the links to your site and from your site be authorities to be worth anything. So, how can you make your website link-worthy? Your Website Needs Useful, Informative, Accurate, Reliable and Promoted Content Don’t put filler content on your website. Every bit of content should be useful, informative and accurate. In addition, it’s important that your audience knows that the content…

Videos are a great way to improve your marketing results. When you realize that YouTube is the really the second most powerful and most influential search engine behind Google Search, then you know you need to add video to your marketing strategy. 1) Share Announcements – A fabulous way to get started with video is to add exciting announcements to your blog using video. Announcements can be made quickly with your webcam and the microphone that comes with your computer. 2) Add Customer Reviews/Testimonials – Ask your customers to make video testimonials or do product reviews for you. It’s a great way to add interesting content to your website, social…

Private label content is content that someone else wrote, that you purchase all the rights to. Licensing varies but typically you can use it for whatever reason you want to use it and represent it as your own. In most cases, the license requires that you alter the PLR in some way and does not allow you to claim copyright. In addition to purchasing PLR from a qualified and quality provider, it’s important to pay close attention to the license to ensure that you use PLR correctly. You can use PLR for a lot of things within your business; here are six to get you started. 1) Article Marketing Rewrite…