If you collect any kind of information about your customers online, you need a privacy policy. A privacy policy lets customers know exactly what information is tracked and tabulated and how it will be used. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Information Practice Principles, you must meet the principles of privacy protection by providing the following information in your policy: 1) Who is collecting the data; 2) The uses to which the data will be put; 3) Recipients of the data; 4) A description of what and how the data is collected; 5) Whether the requested data is voluntary or required, and what if the user refuses to comply; and 6) What steps are being taken to ensure the confidentiality, integrity and quality of the data.
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Web.com Small Business Tip of the Day: Why You Need a Privacy Policy
April 30th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichHelp Your Customers Spend Their Tax Refunds—With You
April 30th, 2013 :: Karen Axelton
By Karen Axelton
Tax time is over, and those Americans who are expecting a refund are already making plans to spend it. How? A study of Twitter feeds by IQ Agency found that as of early April, 65 percent of Americans already knew how they planned to spend their tax refunds. The result is good news for retailers, with
- 14% planning to spend it on electronics
- 11% planning to spend it on fashion
- 11% planning to spend it on automotive
- 10% planning to spend it on food and beverages
- 7% planning to spend it on travel
- 7% planning to spend it on events
- 5% planning to spend it on music.
You’ll notice most of these purchases fall into the discretionary category, which means consumers can easily be swayed to buy by emotional appeals. Consider a marketing approach that does one or more of the following:
- Focuses on the tax refund as “found money” that won’t impact the family budget if spent on discretionary items.
- Emphasizes the “reward yourself” or “treat yourself” aspect of making these purchases.
- Suggests making a long-desired, big-ticket purchase (such as a new TV or electronic device) that otherwise would be too costly.
- Highlights the experiential quality of spending on vacations, events, or food and beverages, such as sharing good times with friends or making memories with the family.
- Appeals to the sensible side by offering discounts or deals on these product and service categories to tempt consumers who may be on the fence.
- Uses humor to sympathize with consumers’ tax time headaches and celebrate that they’re finally over.
Even for the 35 percent of Americans that IQ Agency found plan to save their refund or use it to pay bills, there could be opportunity for financial planners, insurance salespeople and advisers. With tax time fresh in customers’ minds and finances on their brains, you can:
- Contact existing clients with suggestions for how to maximize their refund.
- Offer to review current clients’ portfolios or insurance coverage, suggesting that refund money provides an opportunity to upgrade with “found money.”
- Reach out to prospects by offering a free consultation as to how their refund can be the start of an investment plan or used to purchase needed insurance that they may have been putting off.
Image by Flickr user bradleygee (Creative Commons)
Google+Web.com Small Business Tip of the Day: Fuel Prices Head Lower for Summer
April 29th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichHow do fuel prices affect your business? Besides directly affecting your cost of shipping and receiving products, fuel prices affect how much money your customers have to spend on your business. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price for a gallon of gas is expected to go down slightly from last year because of a small decline in crude oil prices and expected gasoline consumption, as well as higher gasoline inventory levels. Depending on where you live, the small savings could be good news for summer travelers wanting to visit your community, or the savings at the pump could mean prospects have more disposable cash to spend on your products or more services.
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Why Images Matter to Your Content Marketing
April 29th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky
By Rieva Lesonsky
There’s one piece of the content marketing puzzle that many otherwise smart marketers overlook: the power of images. With visual-based social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest and Tumblr making waves, images are more important than ever. What do you need to know about using images in your content marketing?
Images grab attention. It’s human nature to gravitate to visuals before type, so adding images to your blog posts, email newsletters, Facebook posts or tweets makes them more likely to stand out in the sea of competition.
Images provide the personal touch. These days, potential customers want to know who’s behind the business. Including photos of yourself and your employees with your content makes prospects feel like they know you, and that builds affinity and trust.
Images build brands. Be sure to regularly use images that convey your company’s brand, such as your logo, packaging, or photos of your products and your location. For example, a restaurant’s content strategy could include lots of mouthwatering photos of menu items, customers enjoying their meals or your newly redecorated dining room.
Images also provide an important way to improve your content’s rank in search engines. If you include images in a blog post, for example, be sure to tag the image with the keywords you want your business to be found for when customers do a search.
Where can you get images for your content? It’s easier than ever to capture your own photos using any good smartphone camera. However, there are times you’ll want more professional photos, or concept shots. Don’t just grab something off Google—posting a photo you don’t have the rights to could get you in legal hot water.
You can buy photos for re-use from a stock house such as Thinkstock or Shutterstock, which take care of the licensing issues for you. Just make sure that the photos they provide are licensed for the specific use you need them for. Or, search online for photos available under a “creative commons” license. These are photos whose owners allow people to post them as long as the owner is properly credited and linked to on the site. Flickr is one good site for creative commons-licensable photos.
Image by Flickr user Oyvind Solstad (Creative Commons)
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Web.com Small Business Tip of the Day: Banks Optimistic About Small Businesses
April 26th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichIf you’ve been holding off on applying for a small business loan, now might be the time to make your move. A recent survey conducted for FICO, an analytics software company, revealed 62 percent of U.S. banks are optimistic that the demands for small business loans would be met in the next six months. In addition, 89 percent of banks surveyed said the approval rate for small business loans would hold steady or increase, and 79 percent of respondents believe the delinquency rate on small business loans would remain flat or decrease in the same time period. The survey results could mean small businesses would have more capital to begin investing and hiring again.
Google+4 Ways to Get More Subscribers to Your Email Newsletter
April 26th, 2013 :: Rieva Lesonsky
By Rieva Lesonsky
An email newsletter is a key element of your content marketing strategy, driving users to your website, your social media accounts and your business. So if you’ve got an email newsletter, you’re ahead of the game. But how do you get more subscribers to help spread your content far and wide (and buy more stuff from your business)? Try these tactics.
1. Encourage sign-ups everywhere.
It’s essential to put a signup box above the fold on the home page of your website. Ideally, you should also have it on every page. But don’t limit yourself to your website. Regularly post on your social media sites reminding customers to sign up for your newsletter if they haven’t already. Or post content from the newsletter and then say, “To get articles like this every month, sign up for our newsletter (link).” If you send receipts or order acknowledgements by email, make sure those emails include a link to sign up for your newsletter.
And don’t limit yourself to the digital world, either. Have sign-up sheets at the point-of-sale checkout in your store; ask for signups when you give customers the check at your bar or restaurant; ask if customers want to sign up when you’re handing them the invoice after completing work on their home or car. You get the idea. You can also enclose information about your newsletter in packing slips when you ship product, stick it in the bag when customers buy at the counter, or print it on receipts.
2. Keep it simple.
Subscribing to a newsletter is often an impulse decision, so don’t smother the impulse by asking for too much information. To send out an email newsletter, all you really need is the person’s email (it’s nice, but not necessary, to have their name too).
Keep in mind, you can always collect more details about them later, after they’ve been a subscriber for a while and you’ve earned their goodwill. Customers will be more likely to provide personal details if they’ve grown to trust you and feel that they are getting something of value from your newsletter.
3. Offer something in return.
Bribery works. Make your newsletter desirable and encourage subscriptions by offering something in return. This could be a downloadable ebook on tax tips (for an accounting firm) or a $5 discount off the next purchase (for a clothing retailer or restaurant).
4. Make it shareable.
People trust their friends’ recommendations, so using social sharing is a great way to encourage new subscribers. Include icons in your email newsletter to make it easy for recipients to like or follow your business on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or whatever social media sites you use. Every issue of your newsletter should also include a friendly request asking customers to forward the newsletter to others who might enjoy it.
Image by Flickr user Sean MacEntee (Creative Commons)
Google+Web.com Small Business Tip of the Day: Plan for Disaster
April 25th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichWith the tragedy of the Boston Marathon still fresh in everyone’s minds, it revives memories of other recent disasters that have misplaced citizens, families and businesses of all sizes. Even if your business is not located in a disaster-prone area, you never know what else could happen that would interrupt the normal operations of your company. Plan ahead by making sure your critical business information is backed up and stored offsite, diversify your suppliers in case something happens to their business and obtain business interruption insurance. Most important: Make a plan with employees to set up a chain of communication to make sure everyone is accounted for so you can let worried family members and coworkers know.
Google+How to Find the Best Keywords for Your Business
April 25th, 2013 :: Monika Jansen
I was recently tweaking my website, and one thing I did was make sure I had the right keywords integrated throughout the site. That little exercise got me thinking about how to identify the best keywords for a business, especially one that is in a highly competitive industry or market.
Let’s back up real quick. For those who don’t know what a keyword is, Google defines it as “any word or short phrase that describes a website topic or page. The more a keyword is used by searchers and websites, the more attraction power it has.”
Keywords are important. If you want to rank high on a search list, you need to do two basic things: create new content to keep your site fresh and use strong keywords throughout your content and Web pages.
Here’s how to audit your website and identify what keywords to use:
Give each Web page a purpose
Look through your website and make a list of each page: name, category (product page, about page, etc.) purpose. By defining your pages, you will have a clearer idea of what keywords to research and which keywords to use on which pages.
Brainstorm keywords for each page
Go back to your page list. Quickly think of the keywords that are most likely to be used when conducting a search on that topic. If keywords overlap from one page to another, that is perfectly OK. No need to edit – yet!
Check your list against the Google Keyword Tool
This tool sets the standard when it comes to keyword research – webmasters and SEO experts rely on it. Simply type in a word or phrase, and you’ll get a list of similar keywords with a count of how often each word is searched, along with info on which words advertisers think have most value.
Keep in mind that the more competitive (valuable) a keyword is, the harder it will be to rank high in search results for that keyword. Revisit your list, and throw those out. Don’t be tempted to use keywords that rank super low; no one uses them. Your best bet is to go for medium-values.
Consider using long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are entire phrases – like “non-toxic ways to get rid of ants” rather than “pest control.” They are less competitive, but they work very well for SEO purposes, and they convey user intent, which is great for lead conversion purposes.
Do some competitive analysis
Use the keywords you chose to conduct searches. As your competitors pop up, take a look at their sites. What meta-titles are they using (those appear at the very top of the browser window)? Next, conduct a keyword search for your competitors’ sites using semrush.com (handy little tool, isn’t it?) to understand what they’re being found for.
Finalize your list
Now that you have done all that research, plug your almost-final list of keywords back into the Google Keyword Tool to make sure they’re not too competitive, but that they do deliver results. Finalize your list, integrate them on your website, and you’re good to go!
Have you ever done in-depth keyword research? What did you learn?
Image courtesy of 123rf.com
Google+What Luxury Travelers Want in 2013
April 25th, 2013 :: Karen Axelton
By Karen Axelton
If your business is involved in the travel industry, benefits from travelers or markets to them, you’ll want to know what luxury travelers are planning for this year. The news from Unity Marketing is positive: The company’s latest report, Affluent Consumers & Their Travel Plans for 2013, surveyed over 1,300 affluent consumers with an average income of $267,800 and found that nearly half (45 percent) plan to spend more on travel in 2013 compared with 2012.
Where are luxury consumers planning to go? Internationally, three destinations were especially popular compared to 2011: the Caribbean, Asia and Australia/New Zealand. In the U.S., Las Vegas and Nevada in general topped the list of planned vacation spots, followed by New York, Florida, Boston/New England and Los Angeles. 15 percent of consumers plan on visiting Western Europe, especially France, Germany Italy and Spain.
What else do you need to know about luxury travelers?
Luxury travelers typically take multiple long vacations. In 2013, the average luxury traveler will take 2.8 separate vacations lasting four days or longer.
Luxury travelers don’t want to spend a lot of money getting to their destination. They rarely fly first-class, for example, and they seek to use frequent flyer points and other means to economize on the trip. Receiving discounts was cited as more important this year than in the prior 2011 survey.
Once they get to their destination, however, luxury travelers splurge, typically staying in four- to five-star hotels. Experience is key for luxury travelers, and the types of experiences they want most this year are relaxation/stress reduction, sightseeing, and fine dining/food and wine experiences.
This year, luxury travelers are relying much less on travel agents and much more on online reviews and other online tools. Less than one-third will use a travel agent to plan their trips, and the importance of online reviews rose compared to the 2011 survey.
But there is still opportunity for travel sellers, tour companies and other travel-related businesses. To make the most of luxury travelers’ growing budgets:
- Provide or link to online reviews of your business on your website.
- Offer discounts, special offers or packages to appeal to luxury travelers’ desire to save.
- Provide a curated experience. Luxury travelers care greatly about creating meaningful memories and having unique experiences, so if your business can help them discover or enjoy unusual experiences, you’ll appeal to their interests.
- Focus on high quality. Luxury consumers demand the best, so make sure your service is up to their standard.
Image by Flickr user breezy421 (Creative Commons)
Google+Web.com Small Business Tip of the Day: National Small Business Week
April 24th, 2013 :: Maria Valdez HaubrichThe Small Business Administration just announced this year’s National Small Business Week (NSBW) will be held June 17-June 21. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the SBA and the 50th anniversary for NSBW. To help celebrate, instead of just holding one event in Washington, DC where the festivities are traditionally held, the SBA is hosting daily events around the country. According to the SBA, this will help “ensure that during National Small Business Week we celebrate all small businesses…and reach more individuals in our small business communities.” Local events will be held in Seattle (6/17), Dallas (6/18), St. Louis (6/19), and Pittsburgh (6/20). If you can’t attend any of the local events, they will all be live-streamed on the SBA’s website at www.sba.gov.
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