Utilizing Email Marketing

With technology at everyone’s fingertips, it is no secret that online marketing is one of the best ways to promote your business. Whether through social media, online ads, or direct contact, consumers are receiving various online promotions daily.

Email marketing is a fantastic way to reach your target audience. This audience can include past clients, potential customers, and those who have contacted your business in ways besides email.

When it comes to email marketing, there are four basic types of emails you can use to promote your business online and directly to your target audience. Finding the right type and right time to use them is the key to achieving successful email marketing.

Corporate Business Solutions Consultants can easily help you set up a schedule of which emails you should send out and when to do so.

Acquisition Emails

Acquisition emails are meant to convert those who have chosen to receive your emails into customers. They can consist of informative content and special promotional offers that help catch the eye of your potential client.

A lead who has chosen to receive your emails is interested in what your company has to offer. These acquisition emails can help encourage them to take the leap and try out the products or services that you are providing.

Acquisition emails can be a terrific way to catch the eye of your potential clients and make their transition into a customer faster and easy.

Retention Emails

Retention emails are meant to keep your customers engaged and involved even after their initial purchase from your business. These can be requests for feedback or unique offers.

Retention emails are typically sent to customers who you have recently worked with or those who have not interacted with your email campaigns much. By targeting these previous customers, you will be reminding them of all that your company has to offer and their previous experience with you.

Retention emails are a wonderful way to get repeat and referral customers who have been satisfied with their experience with your company.

Email Newsletters

Email newsletters are one of the most common types of email marketing to use. These can be used by all types of companies and help to remind consumers of your business and what you are up to.

Email newsletters typically contain useful, engaging content such as a how-to, announcements about new services or products, or an update on professionals within your company. Anything that provides insight into your business and the industry that you are in can be used in an email newsletter.

Email newsletters can be sent to email subscribers and past clients. These can be sent regularly, around the holidays, or whenever you want to connect with your potential and past customers.

Promotional Emails

If you are looking to increase sales, promotional emails are a wonderful way to do so. Promotional emails include unique offers that appeal to your target audience of potential and past customers.

These can be special sales, limited time offers, and much more. By putting these offers directly into the inbox of your potential clients, you will increase your chances of being seen and taken upon what your business has to offer.

 

Taking Control of Your Billing Systems

When it comes to focusing on the goods and services that your business has to offer, the billing process may be taking away from your priorities. Billing can be time-consuming, and in a perfect world, all customers would pay on time, though unfortunately, this is not the case.

Keeping up with billing can be tedious and time-consuming. When employees who oversee billing have other responsibilities, staying on top of billing can take away from their main priorities.

When it comes to billing, there are two ways to make sure you are doing it in the most effective ways possible. Having staff members dedicated to billing and outsourcing your billing can ensure you are on track with current and past bills you are owed and avoid negatively impacting other operations within your business.

Dedicated Billing Staff

One of the best ways to ensure that billing responsibilities do not take over time that could be dedicated to other types of tasks is by having staff members that are dedicated to billing functions.

If you have more than one secretary for your business, for example, dedicating one to overseeing billing can help ensure that there is still a strong, undistracted focus on bookkeeping. Having members of other teams may not be ideal when it comes to overseeing billing.

If you do not have a staff member that can pick up billing responsibilities, picking up a staff member solely for this purpose is an incredibly wise thing to do. They will be able to manage collections, billing reminders, new billing statements, and other tasks without taking away from areas such as marketing or operations.

One of the most important reasons to have a dedicated billing department, whether it consists of one person or many people, is to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. With staff members solely focused on billing, all loose ends will be tied up and will not burden other departments with doing their job efficiently.

Outsourcing Your Billing

For some businesses, hiring extra employees solely to oversee billing responsibilities may not be practical. When you have many different areas of operations to focus on, resolute employees to take charge of billing may be more of an inconvenience than a benefit.

If this is the case, consider outsourcing your billing to a professional billing company. Doing so will ensure that all your billing needs are fulfilled without management or other staff members having to worry about it. This will allow them to prioritize their responsibilities and not worry about things as important as billing being procrastinated due to a heavy workload.

Outsourcing billing may save you money. When billing is managed by a team of professionals, there is no need to spend money on hiring and training new employees to oversee billing. In addition, you will not have to worry about purchasing modern technology and programs just for billing. All of this will be included with your billing agency.

If you are unsure if in-house or outsourcing billing is best for you, Corporate Business Solutions can help you make the right decision.

 

5 Reasons a Co-working Space is Great for Small Businesses

Whether you’re working on a series of freelance projects or running a small business, a co-working space can benefit you greatly. As your business begins to grow beyond just yourself, it is crucial to make a space in your office to accommodate your team. Co-working spaces are a great way to positively impact your business’ growth.

Corporate Business Solutions has put together five interesting reasons that a co-working space is great for small businesses.

The Benefits of Co-working Spaces for Small Businesses

A co-working space is an ideal environment that provides people within the office with meeting spaces, desks, internet access, and other things such as coffee machines. In the co-working space, everyone can work beside one another to create a welcoming and creative space.

Now, let’s look at the benefits of these working spaces.

  1. Co-working spaces save time

As a small business owner, you can never have too much time on your hands. Saving time is so important if you already have enough on your plate. As a small business owner, you are responsible for dealing with customers, managing employees, and the day-to-day operations of your business.

These responsibilities can soon pile up which leaves you with many challenges along the way. This is where co-working spaces come into play.

  1. Co-working spaces save money

If you’re not into the idea of spending lots of money to deck out your space or hire lots of employees, a co-working space is what you need. Co-working spaces provide a cost-effective workspace for everyone to come together. Co-working spaces work for everybody from freelancers who need a quiet space to teams who are running projects.

Co-working spaces also offer small businesses a low-cost option for getting out of the house while still maintaining privacy.

  1. Co-working spaces save space

Co-working spaces easily offer both the privacy of a private office as well as the collaborative environment of an open floor plan. It also doesn’t take up too much space. It keeps your home and works life separate while adding comfort.

  1. Co-working spaces improve productivity

Small businesses can easily boost productivity with co-working spaces. If you have ever felt your creativity being stifled, co-working spaces can put the hop back in your step. If you’ve been looking for interesting ways to boost your creativity, a co-working space is a way to do it.

  1. Co-working spaces encourage collaboration

Shared spaces are the perfect way to encourage collaboration between coworkers. In these spaces, coworkers can easily bounce ideas off each other and tackle hard problems via face-to-face interaction.

Co-working spaces provide an affordable, collaborative, and easy-going space for small businesses to work in the best way possible. As small businesses grow, it is common to outgrow your co-working spaces. However, you can always find another location to level up your space again! If you’ve been looking for a space to collaborate and grow with your team, try a co-working space!

 

 

4 Competitive Advantages Small Businesses Have Over Big Companies

One thing that many small businesses don’t realize is that they have many advantages over large companies. While it may seem disheartening at times to only be a small business, the reality of it is that sometimes you are far luckier. Often, when small business owners are made aware of how truly lucky, they are, their outlook changes completely.

Check out these four competitive advantages that small businesses have over big companies from your Corporate Business Solutions Consultants to learn more.

  1. Faster decision making

Being a small business isn’t always a bad thing. It does come with a unique set of advantages. One of the biggest advantages is the quick turnaround for making decisions. While you may have a smaller number of employees, you can make decisions and be quicker in process innovation far easier.

To keep your small business afloat, you must be able to adapt, grow, and change. It can be harder to make those decisions when you’re surrounded by red tape and other voices.

  1. Targeting niche markets

It can sometimes feel overwhelming to be a small business surrounded by larger businesses. However, you should never forget your competitive advantages when it comes to your target niche market. By developing and maintaining a focused strategy, you can easily home in on and target your niche market.

This gives you leverage and power that big companies simply do not have.

  1. Empowering and developing your team

A strong and loyal team makes all the difference to business operations. Smaller teams can get the one-on-one attention that is needed for a team to thrive. Having a smaller team allows individualized attention that large companies simply cannot gain access to within their operations.

To make the most of empowering and developing your team, ensure that your employees can have their say in the direction of where the business is going. Leadership should also be accessible to all employees to address their concerns and questions. Ensure that time is also set aside to discuss personal development with each team member.

By implementing these practices, small businesses can grow and create an environment where each employee feels valued and listened to.

  1. Personalized customer service

Ranking high on Google, being a top market player, and having a large customer base is great. However, it all comes down to your customer service. Having a real and unique connection with your customers instantly makes you a flag-bearing business.

The problem many big companies make is in their one size fits all approach. Luckily, small businesses have the leverage, and capacity, to be able to listen to what each customer has to say. Then, they can customize everything accordingly. All small businesses should take advantage of this.

As you can see, small businesses have many great advantages that large companies could never dream of having. To get the most out of your business, use these advantages in your favor.

 

 

 

 

3 Small Business Marketing Tactics You Need to Know About

Whether you are planning to begin your small business venture, or you already have a small business, its success will depend entirely on how you decide to market it. In the United States alone, thirty million businesses are competing to become successful in their chosen industry.

Even if you do not have an overly large budget, there is so much more that small businesses can do to attract their target audience and maintain their customer base. In turn, it is quite easy to focus on marketing strategies that boost your business.

Check out the tactics from CBS-CBS.com to learn about marketing your business in the best way possible.

  1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the unique and intelligent process of optimizing your business website to make it easier for search engines to find your business online. For example, if you rank high on Google, there is a far higher chance that your business will attract customers.

SEO is one of the most impactful ways to generate new leads as well as grow a business audience. As of now, only around 49% of small businesses are investing in their SEO. Here are some of the best ways to implement SEO:

  • High-quality backlinks
  • Creating a Google My Business account
  • Creating blog posts and videos that your local community relates to
  • Re-question reviews from customers
  • Optimizing your website with local keywords
  • Using location pages
  1. Social Media Marketing to Nurture and Engage Customers

If you are not using social media as a form of marketing to nurture and engage customers, you are not doing it right. Social media marketing is the perfect way to reach a larger audience and boost your business at the same time. On average, people spend 2.5 hours on social media each day.

That is why it is so easy to reach a large audience via social media. It is also very inexpensive. You can use platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even Pinterest depending on your target audience.

Here are some great ways to use social media marketing to grow your business:

  • Provide quick responses to your customer’s queries and questions
  • Create high-quality content that triggers an emotional response
  • Create contests to get your followers to tag their networks
  • Create user-generated content using hashtags
  • Collaborate with influencers to establish brand trust
  1. Content Marketing to Improve Branding

Did you know that over 91% of businesses use content marketing to improve their branding? Studies show that over 70% of consumers learn about businesses through articles! Content Marketing focuses on being able to create and deliver valuable, consistent, and relevant information.

Eventually, it also drives profitable consumer action. Building a sufficient relationship with your customers as well as search engines can be time-consuming with this technique. However, if you do it correctly, it can make your business an industry leader!

Small businesses can grow significantly when following proven business marketing techniques and practices. It is also important to evaluate your results to identify which strategies work best for your business.

 

 

 

Dos and Don’ts for Small Business Owners

Small business owners throughout the world are different. However, there are some dos and don’ts of business ownership to beware of. There are certain traits, qualities, and mindsets that will take you further.

These things will also help you create success for not only yourself but everyone around you. Leading a business properly matters for customers, staff, and you as a business owner. Though, nowadays this mentality is quite rare. That statement is especially true in larger corporations.

With all that in mind, Corporate Business Solutions has put together some dos and don’ts for small business owners.

Do: Show respect to your customers and staff

In your chosen industry, you must be respected. However, that respect must be earned. The best small business owners will always treat people with respect.

Whether rich or poor, all people should be treated the same, without any judgment. Make sure your customers and staff are treated with respect, courtesy, and honesty.

Do: Communicate

To get the best out of your small business, you want to show that you have great character, maturity, and integrity. Most of all, you want to ensure that you communicate effectively with everything you encounter. Successful business owners don’t just speak about themselves.

Instead, they will share expertise, check in on customers and employees, and ensure that every conversation adds value. Make sure you use good manners and speak with consideration and thoughtfulness.

Don’t: Waste people’s time

As a leader, you mustn’t waste people’s time. Every time you show up late to a meeting or appointment, you are essentially saying that your time is more important. How you treat people says everything about you as a leader.

If you don’t allow staff to show up late for meetings, why should you be allowed to? It all goes back to respecting your staff and treating people equally.

Don’t: Think too highly of yourself

Self-confidence is important. However, thinking too highly of yourself could cause a lot of issues. Make sure that the words “do you know who I am?” never come out of your mouth. This could put you in hot water with your employees and those around you. While many business owners don’t usually mention that they’re the owner, some will pull out the “I’m too important” card all too often. People will like you far more if you stop acting as you know better than they do.

This will, in turn, make your work life far easier. The last thing your small business needs is someone acting like they’re above everyone else, even if you technically are. Treating people with kindness will take you far further than you think.

Owning a small business is no easy feat. However, with the right tools and the knowledge of dos and don’ts, you’re on the right path to success. Implement these dos and don’ts to ensure that you keep winning with a positive reputation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Make an Awesome Logo for Your Small Business

If you’re reading this, you’re likely planning to start a side hustle or small business. Perhaps you already have a small business but feel your logo is lacking. No matter the reason, there are some dos and don’ts when it comes to creating a suitable logo for your small business.

There can be a lot of confusion surrounding logos. However, there is no need to worry as you’re not alone at all. Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions have put together a few ways to make an awesome logo for your small business.

Do I need a logo?

The short answer is yes, you most definitely need a logo. No matter how small or large your business is, your logo is the face of your brand and should be treated as such. Even if you’re only making candles to sell to family and friends.

Put simply, if you are planning to monetize an idea, you need a logo. Otherwise, your image, efforts, and hard work could belong to anyone. Here are some tips to make an awesome logo.

  1. Get inspiration

Every great venture or logo begins with a simple idea. That means that the first step to an awesome logo is to get inspired and write down all of your great ideas. Start feeding your brain with new experiences, impressions, and memories that could conjure up a logo idea.

Use anything to inspire your brain. Things such as hiking, visiting local attractions, and meditating can help to unlock the part of your brain that wants to create. Any activity that brings energy and joy will help you create the best logo possible.

  1. See what’s trending

When it comes to logo design, there are several choices to make. Consider what is trending right now as to how you make your logo. However, make sure you look for aspects of your logo that will survive after the trends die out.

Don’t be afraid to try new things and give it your best shot.

  1. Keep a sketch pad with you

You never know when inspiration will strike. That is why you should always carry around a sketch pad to write your ideas down as soon as they hit you. Don’t be afraid to sketch things as it is a great base to have when designing a logo. Once you have come up with a few designs you like, learn about an online logo creator. From there, you can combine your ideas to make the ideal logo. When it comes to logo creation, you need to take your time. Rushing will only delay the process or create a less than an ideal logo. It is good to remember that your final logo will determine your business’s success. That is why you never want to risk rushing the process.

Take your time and make everything as perfect as you possibly can. With the tips above, you’re on your way to an amazing logo!

 

 

How to Use Color Psychology When Marketing Your Small Business

Have you noticed the way different colors can make you feel? When you’re standing in a lush green field surrounded by blue skies, you feel complete serenity. Perhaps you have even noticed that the color red can make you feel slightly alarmed.

No matter the color that popped into your mind when you read the first sentence of this post, it is likely that you have fallen victim to color psychology. As crazy as it may sound, colors have a huge effect on the human psyche.

It is all part of color psychology. Check out this little guide from CBS-CBS.com to learn more about color psychology.

What is Color psychology? 

Color psychology is the way different colors determine or affect human behavior. You can readily use color psychology in advertising and marketing to evoke and change emotional reactions to what you are advertising. While that sounds simple enough, there is plenty to know about color psychology.

How do colors influence people? 

Color meaning and color psychology can easily and powerfully change the way people behave and make decisions. Within only a few minutes, people can make subconscious judgments about a person, product, or environment. With the right colors, you can impact people’s initial impression of you and your business.

As a business promoting your brand, you should know all about tints, hues, colors, and shades to evoke emotion and promote action. Through specific color choices in logos, signage, packaging, and advertising, brands can easily influence consumers to buy on impulse or choose their product over another.

For example, when you think about your favorite brands, think about how they make you feel. Do their logos stand out because of their bright colors or do you prefer black and white? That is color psychology in its finest form.

How colors can make people feel…

Here are some colors and how they may make people feel:

  • Red- Red often creates a sense of urgency. That is what makes it perfect for clearance sales or breaking news. It is also frequently used by fast-food chains as it often makes people hungry. People may often associate red with passion, movement, power, and excitement.
  • Green- Green is most often associated with health, wellness, and general wellbeing. It is clean, clear, and brings a sense of nature into your brand. The color green can also create a feeling of harmony and encourage decisions.
  • Purple- Usually, the color purple is associated with wisdom, royalty, and respect. It greatly stimulates creativity.
  • Blue- Funnily enough, men prefer the color blue in advertising and marketing over any other. It is associated with reliability, peace, tranquility, and water. The color blue also promotes trust in a brand.
  • Yellow and orange- Both colors are cheerful and promote optimism. However, used incorrectly they can make people cautious.

Color psychology is a powerful stimulator when it comes to how people view your brand. How you incorporate color into your brand will essentially say everything about your business. While there are no “best” marketing colors, there are colors that impact people better than others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Ways to Make Your Small Business Better

Starting a small business is amazing. Watching it grow is arguably even better. However, sometimes you can feel like your small business is lacking. It can be easy to get caught up in all the things you have to do to successfully run your business. Though, it is important to simply take a step back and make sure you’re doing everything possible to grow your business.

If you feel like your business needs a boost, check out these four ways to make your small business better from your Corporate Business Solution Consultants.

  1. Get a Mentor

There is not a single person in the world that is perfect at every aspect of running a business. Perhaps you know a lot about your chosen industry, but the accounting side is confusing for you. Maybe you love the behind-the-scenes action but find customer interaction difficult.

Having a successful mentor will help you in any of the areas where you fall short. Networking is the perfect way to meet people who can help you. In any industry, having a mentor by your side can make the biggest difference.

  1. Motivate your Team

Staff needs motivation. It is a well-known fact that even the best team requires firing up sometimes. Make sure that in these teams you work with your team as a leader and a friend. Keep your team dedicated to your company by providing fun activities where they can bond as a group. Allow them a space to be passionate and creative. Even the best employees may find it difficult at times.

Be there for them during these times to let them know everything is okay. Communication and motivation never die.

  1. Recharge your Batteries

If you must wait for a time where you have nothing to do, you will never take a break. It is incredibly easy to become so enthralled in your business life that you neglect your breaks altogether. Soon enough you will find that all you do is check your emails and make calls.

When you don’t take time off, you end up losing sight of the big picture as well as your dreams. You will also find that you become less productive and less creative. Be the best you by taking some time off.

  1. Make Quality a Priority

If your product isn’t good, all the marketing materials and high-quality staff in the world won’t save you. Make sure that your business is doing great work and delivering something you’re extremely proud of.

If your product isn’t good, neither is your business.

The Bottom Line 

You should always be trying to better your business. Then, and only then, is it easy to see just how beneficial everyone is toward the common goals of your small business. You need to remember that your whole team is in this together.

If your business needs a boost or is feeling a little stale, it may be time to change things up!

 

Does Your Small Business Need Live Chat?

Live chat is becoming a quintessential part of small businesses globally. It is much like an immediate interactive mail-in design. The job of live chat is to sit at the bottom corner of your website waiting for customers who need help.

Live chat supports your customers who need help instantly. Live chat can also increase your sales drastically. When people can gain immediate access to an answer, they are far more likely to buy the product in question.

Many small businesses love it for closing sales and increasing revenue. Perhaps you have seen the possibilities of live chat, but you don’t have the staff count to warrant it. However, live chat doesn’t always need staff 24/7 to work.

Find out how live chat can help your business and whether you need it or not with this article from Reviews for Corporate Business Solutions.

Does your small business need live chat?

When it comes to live chats, you need to decide if your small business needs live chat. Here are some great examples of small businesses that can use live chat:

  • Hospitality and medical- A business that takes bookings or reservations like hotels or restaurants
  • Online retailers- A business that sells products online
  • Consultants and service providers- A business that offers business services 

If you run one of the aforementioned businesses, live chat is a great tool. However, if you get very little website traffic, life chat likely isn’t the best thing for your business. If you’re unsure, many businesses are offering free live chat trials. You have nothing to lose.

Set specific hours

If you run a smaller team, manage your customers’ expectations by setting specific hours for your live chat. Unless you run a large eCommerce store, people don’t expect small businesses to run 24/7. However, they don’t want to open a live chat only to be left with no response.

To ensure your customers aren’t disappointed, post your live chat business hours on the live chat as well as your website. You can ask the person to leave a message for you to reply to later. While this may defeat the real purpose of live chat, it is still a helpful business tool.

Either way, you’re making it easy for your customers to get in contact. This is far quicker than composing an email or trying to find your contact details. Just make sure that you reply to the message as soon as possible.

Create a FAQ page or knowledge base

Once you have been running your business for a while, you will develop an understanding of the types of questions people ask. If you can’t have a 24/7 live chat, give your customers a FAQ page or knowledge base to consult if they are confused.

If they are stuck, they can then message you on the live chat.

Live chat can be a great tool for small businesses to harness. There are no downsides. If customer service matters to you, live chat is a great next step to take.