Alberta Business MarketingJan
28
2012
Dec
31
2011
This is a guest post by Sam Peters.
When you’re starting an online business, you probably have no shortage of ideas, motivation, and grand plans for the future of your enterprise. But there is one notable area where you likely have a short supply: finances. Unless you have personal reserves or an already-set collection of investors, there’s a good chance that your ideas will have to initially be implemented with a tight budget in mind.
This budget extends to your marketing efforts. While it is important to advertise your business and work to gain exposure, it is impossible to take out large ad campaigns or to simply throw money at the situation. Instead, you need to find approaches that maximize the benefits while minimizing, as much as possible, the costs you need to occur for them to be realized.
Along those lines, here are a few tips for marketing your startup, working to gain some initial exposure, and for accomplishing this without paying a dime:
This goes without saying, but social media can be an incredibly powerful tool for boosting your exposure without incurring any costs. To this end, create a Facebook page for your business and open a Twitter account. Post status updates and Facebook and try to accumulate “Likes” from among your colleagues, family members, and friends. Doing so will insure that a larger number of people see your business on their News Feeds.
Even if you aren’t in a niche industry, your business likely has a specific focus that is closely matched by only a few internet competitors. Study these competitors to get an idea of how they market themselves –especially, how they market themselves for free. Do they post articles on forums or other sites? How do they utilize social media? Does it appear as though they have mailing lists and newsletters?
A successful marketing campaign cannot simply be done behind a façade of internet anonymity. Instead, it is important to talk to people in the industry, whether on the phone, at conventions, or through email. Ask them advice but also ask them to spread the world. You may even get some helpful tips in the process.
While limitless, the internet still has its limits when it comes to marketing. This is especially true for a small startup that is looking to gain traction and exposure. If you operate in a niche industry or have a determinable customer base, you may have more success looking to reach this demographic offline in the early going. Does your target consumer group interact offline? Is there a place they go (ie a given retailer) or a way they communicate? If so, you may want to make yourself a part of that community.
These are just a few tips for increasing your exposure during the early days of a startup, when visibility is low and money is tight. The options available in this situation may not be as appealing as those you could find on a larger budget, but when done correctly they can return dividends nonetheless.
Author Bio: Sam Peters is a blogger who frequently writes for entrepreneurial and tech blogs covering topics from online marketing to the newest gadget and mobile web news.
Post from: The Other Blokes Blog
Free Marketing Tips For Internet Startups
Dec
30
2011
This is a guest post by Abhishek Bhan
There is nothing quite like celebrating New Year’s Eve in Scotland. Whether you are in a local pub, on the streets of Edinburgh or enjoying a party with friends and family Scotland seems to be in its element at Hogmanay.
Scotland’s flagship Hogmanay event is in Edinburgh. With leading music events and DJs this is an all ticket affair. The concert is part of the larger street party in Princes Street. You can still have a great time in Edinburgh without buying a ticket - there are lots of great pubs in Edinburgh and many will be having parties to bring in the New Year. Alternatively there will be a torchlight procession from Parliament Square to Calton Hill with a fireworks display.
There are many other events at the theatres and concert venues that make Edinburgh such a great city for a party. The Usher Hall has the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra – have you ever heard; Auld Lang Syne played by a fiddle orchestra? The Queenshall will do things in a traditional Scottish way with a Ceilidh hosted by the band Heeliegoleerie and with a piper to bring in the New Year.
If all this sounds a little too much perhaps a more peaceful time in Perthshire might be the way to bring in 2012. Auchterarder might be a good place to stay. There is a good assortment of pubs in town to choose from and there is a great array of shops. What better way to clear your head on New Year’s day than to stroll along the Oak Walk from the town?
Should you still feel you want a big party you can bring in the New Year at Perth race course. This offers a mixture of the traditional Ceilidh and disco at the racecourse just to the north of Perth.
Pitlochry is one of the Scottish towns that goes a bit crazy for New Year. They close their main street and have a proper party. The pubs and hotels of this beautiful Scottish Highland town make a special effort to welcome the guests.
There is something to do for Hogmanay wherever you stay in Scotland and you will find the Scots have the best parties you could wish for on New Year's Eve. Why not plan on spending this Hogmanay in Scotland.
Author Bio: Abhishek Bhan is a writer for Mackay's Agency which has a range of self catering Scottish cottages to choose from in several of the places mentioned in the article.
Post from: The Other Blokes Blog
Hogmanay, New Year’s Eve Scottish Style
Dec
18
2011
Rapid responses have a great deal to recommend them. If you have a problem situation to resolve, it is usually advisable to handle it quickly before things get worse. Conversely if you are waiting for an answer from some other person, the earlier you get the information or advice, the quicker you can take action. That all sounds fine and dandy, but we all know that is not how things turn out in reality.
Most of us have got beaten down by the way things seem to get done. Perhaps a non-scientific indication of that is shown by some quick searches on Google. The number of items in the Google search is an indicator of the degree of public interest in the phrase that was searched for. Here are the results we found at this time.
| Keyword phrase |
Google Search entries |
| Response |
1.28 billion |
| Slow response |
1.16 billion |
| Fast response |
188 million |
| Inappropriate response |
127 million |
| Appropriate response |
102 million |
| Speedy response |
48 million |
| Timely response |
36 million |
One might infer from these numbers that a slow response is almost inevitable and that more often than not inappropriate responses will be given rather than the appropriate responses one wished for. Getting a fast, speedy or timely response is clearly a much less probable outcome.
If rapid responses are the exception, does anyone regard them as a priority that deserves extra effort and resources? In this article, we will discuss the two sectors that seem to feature most prominently in such online discussions. All sectors of society now rely on electronic communication and insist on always-on availability of information. It is therefore not surprising that the IT industry believes that the speed of response is critical.
You have to be fast in today’s marketplace and no department feels the heat more than IT, according to four of the Enterprise CIO Forum Council members.
People must have an attitude that ‘faster is better than best.’ Something that solves 33% of a problem today is better than something that solves 100% of a problem in 18 months. Many companies sacrifice speed for perfection or false precision. Often data or solutions can be ‘good enough’ to take interim steps and action.
Of course faster is also more costly and here the IT department must balance the need for a response with the cost of achieving that. That is why a major computer supplier such as Dell offers Speed of Response Options.
Get parts and labor fast — upgrade from next-business-day on-site service, which comes standard with Dell ProSupport, to same-day or mission-critical on-site service. This will help keep client systems up and running, and minimize data center downtime. This flexible approach to technical support allows you to choose the response time you need to support your business. This flexibility helps you not just keep your users up and running and your data centers operating at top speed, but also enables you to keep your IT budget under control.
Another area where rapid responses are needed is that of public relations, for businesses and for governments. Adverse publicity is often utilized by critics who know how to work the media. Unless prompt action is taken, what starts as a minor negative incident can mushroom into a very costly major event A typical example of what is being done can be seen in Washington DC where the White House has beefed up on its online rapid response.
The Obama administration has created and staffed a new position tucked inside their communications shop for helping coordinate rapid response to unfavorable stories and fostering and improving relations with the progressive online community. Jesse Lee will move from the new media department into a role in the communications department as Director of Progressive Media & Online Response. This signals that the White House will be adopting a more aggressive engagement in the online world in the months ahead.
Lee's Twitter account could also become an interesting window into the status of the always emotional, occasional testy dance between progressives and the president.
The reason why politicians would aim to get involved in social media is that social media are giving individuals channels within which they can ensure their views are known and shared. A major organization can either get involved as a participant in the debate or remain the subject of the discussion. This is an area that many businesses realize they should be involved in but they are unclear on how best to do this.
Given that most companies will take the easy way out and remain faceless entities that do not get involved, this is an area where a company can easily stand out from the crowd and from its competitors. All that it takes is to think ahead and plan the resources and the format of your Timely Response, both for potential customers who may contact you and for important happenings in the market place.
An appropriate and informative timely marketing piece not only shows you understand an issue well (and are relevant and capable of addressing it), but also shows that you are a proactive person within a dynamic company that is not afraid to take a stance in their industry and with their customers. You can also offer potential calls to action that may trigger your customers to approach you for expert advice or information.
This is not a major cost activity. All that it takes is that you are alert to opportunities (which you should be anyway) and that someone has the responsibility for acting as the voice of the company. The key requirement is that the response be rapid. Delay will mean that you're just lost in the crowd.
Post from: The Other Blokes Blog
Rapid Response – When is it needed?
Dec
15
2011
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