Browsing Tag
Word of mouth
20 posts
Making Business Connections in the Digital Age: Tips for Networking Offline
More and more, business owners are finding ways to make money online and monetize their audiences. It is undisputed that having an online presence in today’s digital world is a must, and a part of that presence is social credibility that can be used to convert followers into sales. However, an online presence is only...
How Your Brick-and-Mortar Business Can Remain Competitive in an Online World
With so much competition from online behemoths like Amazon and Walmart, smaller businesses may wonder how they'll ever survive. The retail market space and its competition are no longer composed of just those stores within a local radius. Entrepreneurs are now competing with sellers nationwide that order in bulk and offer deep discounts. Add Amazon...
This Entrepreneur Financed Her Business With a Side Hustle
Charlie Heck is the founder of Checkmark Creative, a marketing boutique that works with small businesses to tell their stories through social media, website design and infographics. “We take really complex material and make pretty little Facebook and Instagram posts out of it,” explained Heck. After a job loss, Heck found a non-traditional way to...
Why User-Generated Content is the Secret to Successful Marketing
As every entrepreneur knows, an idea gets your business off the ground, but getting the word out and developing a loyal customer base is what keeps the lights on. Making the most of your marketing budget is a challenge that most startups face. Where do I spend? What do I spend on? How can I...
3 Ways to Boost Your Word-of-Mouth Reputation to Hit Your Growth Goals
Self-employment doesn’t have to mean going it all alone. Customers and friends who support your business might be the most valuable marketing resource you have. And word-of-mouth marketing only gets more powerful when you look at the networks of people online who are happy to tell others about their experience doing business with you. In...
4 Signs Your Side Hustle is Sustainable and Ready to Grow
Side hustles are all about balance. By its very definition, a “side hustle” is a profit-making endeavor that you do on the side of an additional, typically full-time, job. Anyone who has a side hustle is usually juggling a wide range of tasks and responsibilities, so organization, time management and personal discipline are key. While...
The Art of Bootstrapping: How to Start a Business with Little to No Money
Bootstrapping is a term that has long been applied to entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial process. According to Dictionary.com, when used as a verb, bootstrapping means to “help oneself without the aid of others.” In the business world, it’s often a reference to the financial end of starting up a business with very little capital, little...
6 Ways to Use Word-of-Mouth Marketing to Promote Your Brand
Word-of-mouth marketing is an effective sales tactic. Yet, cultivating enthusiastic brand ambassadors is a nuanced art. Six accomplished entrepreneurs and members of The Oracles share their top strategies for creating ambassadors who are so excited about your brand, they do the selling for you. Exceed service expectations Customer service is how companies supply, meet or exceed customer...
How to Scale Your Digital Marketing Efforts While You’re in the First Year of Business
You’ve got a great idea, enough funding to hire an expert team and a developed product ready for customers. You also have some marketing strategies in mind, and now it’s time to validate them, grow your business and scale up to the next phase. But, before all of that… there’s a lot of work to...
How Entrepreneurs Can Use Events as a Lead Generator
Research shows that 75 percent of B2B marketers believe that in-person events are the most effective lead generation strategy, above even blogging and social media. That doesn't come as much of a surprise. Real-life experiences are simply more engaging and memorable than anything else. So, if event marketing isn’t already in your marketing toolbox to drive business...
5 Ways Startups Can Achieve More Results with Less
Business as usual is dead. The pace of change in the digital age has opened up new opportunities, allowing startups to disrupt industries and challenge the giants of the corporate world. You might not have the budget to match your established rivals, but with new technology and a little creative thinking, it is now...
The Marketing Secret Your Customers Can’t Resist
How are you driving word-of-mouth for your business? As a leader, it’s one of the biggest questions you’ll face, and how you answer it will likely determine your success or failure. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that the rules of engaging with customers through social media marketing are drastically changing. Facebook’s recent algorithm...
Social Media Connections Count
Social Media: Ramping up conversations, clicks and conversions If you’ve been keeping up on your content, you already know social media engagement is all the rage. But for developing businesses, the party doesn’t end at “engage.” Fostering relationships and converting them into revenue is key to success. One surefire way to get there is to...
How to Create Word-of-Mouth Brand Advocates for Your Business
One of the simplest yet overlooked business growth strategies is "Word-of-Mouth" While paid advertising and media stories may land you some significant customer leads, one of the simplest yet overlooked business growth strategies is word-of-mouth (or WOM). Entrepreneur defines it as “an unpaid form of promotion in which satisfied customers tell other people how much...
Small Business Owner Bob Christensen Gets the Word Out
Recently, I spoke to the CEO of Your Dollar Matters, Inc., http://www.theformtool.com, Bob Christensen. As a successful, small business owner who deals with other entrepreneurs in accounting, case management and HR on a regular basis, he is getting the word out about his business and increasing sales via public relations efforts. Here are his insights…...
What We Can Learn From Pandora Radio About Word of Mouth Marketing
Word of mouth marketing is a mystery. How do you get people to spread the word about your company to their friends so you can grow your business? There is no magic mix of message and method that will guarantee that your customers spread the word about their positive experiences. It can be helpful however,...
If you don’t like it – tell us. If you love it – tell others!
My sister tells a great story about her daughter Jordan. When she was about five years old, she loved to watch infomercials. One morning she came running into the kitchen, very excited and blurted out – “Mom! Mom! we need to buy a Mr. Omelet pan, the eggs won't stick, it makes turning easy, and...
Word of mouth marketing and advertising
Here's how it works. When you especially identify a screaming need for someone, offer a solution as a good will gesture and then come through with flying colors, you'll get talked about. A lot. Example? One of the StartupNation community members, nickname jonese, noticed that we were having a particularly troublesome time with spam in...
The power of ‘Word of Mouth’
Have you seen the results of a study done by Intelliseek and Forrester this fall? The study indicates that word-of-mouth is far and away the most powerful way to influence the decision making of customers. To quote, "Consumers are 50 percent more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth recommendations from their peers than by radio/TV...
I”ll Tell Two People and They”ll Tell Two People
Brandi, who sells big and tall men's clothing, was an inspiring guest on the StartupNation radio show talking about her EBay store. My fellow blogger, Joel, also wrote about how she created her company so she could spend more time with her son. But something else struck me about her story. I couldn't help repeating...