Archive for July, 2011

Micro Business Roundup

By | July 29, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

In this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup, we’ve got a number of great articles from across the Web that touch on everything from finance to online video. How was your week?

9 Ways To Write Great E-mail Subject Lines – Have you experienced a lack of interaction with your email marketing? One area that often leads to this lack of engagement is the subject line. This post offers nine tips to draft compelling subject lines for your customers.

Still Not Sure If Twitter Is For Your Biz? Here’s 5 Things It’s Great For – It is easy to get overwhelmed with social media nowadays. With limited time and resources businesses have to determine where to best allocate their time. If you are on the fence with Twitter, check out this article from Small Biz Technology that offers five things that Twitter is good for.

A Financial Tracking Tool for Small Business – Do you have trouble tracking your businesses finances and lack the budget for an accountant? If so, you might want to check out this feature from Entrepreneur on inDinero, a Web-based finance tool.

Shhh! Interest Checking Is Now Available to Small Businesses – On the one-year anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act becoming law, many of the provisions in the bill have went into action. One of which is interest checking for small business owners.

Video Marketing: Should It Matter To Small Businesses? – Is video right for your business? Much like the question on Twitter above, there is no standard answer and each business owner needs to make that decision based on their business’ needs.  This post offers some good pointers on what doing video requires.

Writing emails your customers will open

By | July 28, 2011 | Micro Business Tips | No comments

In this week’s edition of Micro Business Tips Thursday (more info), we asked the fans on the Vistaprint Facebook page how they craft emails so that customers open them.

After reading through a slew of good answers, we selected this tip from IMAGES by Ngaire as this week’s top response:

Try to be friendly, natural, and genuine. Don’t overload their inbox. Keep titles simple and to the point and you are well on to your way to success!

How do you craft your emails? Are you friendly like IMAGES by Ngaire suggests or something else? We’d love to hear below.

Be sure to tune into our Facebook page next week for your chance to be featured on this blog.

Off the Grid

By | July 27, 2011 | Design Tips, How To | No comments

This post is the latest edition of Vistaprint Creative Director Keith Manning’s monthly series on design tips for your micro business.

Have you ever tried hanging a row of framed pictures on a wall? If even one of those pictures is the slightest bit off, it’s completely noticeable. There are many holes, behind many pictures, in my walls that can attest to this. It’s a lot easier to hang things [cleanly] when there is a straight line to follow.

The same is true when designing a piece of marketing communication.

In design, it’s called designing with a grid. There have been tons of books and articles written about the in-depth, sophisticated layout structures behind the grid system, so I will spare you the lesson. Essentially, grid-based thinking can be boiled down to: aligning design elements off of invisible lines. It’s something that all good designers are aware of, and it’s a major reason why professionally designed marketing pieces look professional.

The idea is that you should be able to draw a line from one design element to another on your page. Design elements are all the visual things that occupy the page – a headline, body text, image, icon, graphic, etc. An example would be if you were to left align your headline on a postcard, place an image in the middle, and put an address at the bottom of the page, they should all align with the same invisible line (see image below).

Does this mean that you need to draw a bunch of lines on your page before you design anything? No.

The principle suggests that you should be aware of the placement of your design elements on the page. And once you are satisfied with the placement, take an extra minute to ensure that the design elements are aligned in some way.

Our eyes search for clarity and order when looking at a piece of design. So any way that you can help your customers find that clarity in your communication, the easier it will be for them to retain the message. A rule of thumb for me is has always been, if a design element is even remotely close to aligning with another one – align it. It’ll make a big impact. The final piece will be polished, professional and pleasing to the viewer. Just like a wall of perfectly hung pictures.

How’d You Come Up with Your Micro Business Name?

By | July 25, 2011 | Micro Business Tips | 5 Comments

When you began brainstorming the creation of your very own micro business, how did you decide on a company name? Did you find the process fun, or was it a tedious task of the business start-up process? Creating a business name may come easy for some (it may be the first business decision you make), but it can be natural to struggle with creating an original company name that helps you standout. In some cases, a poorly thought out business name can derail a well-built business plan.

So how do you go about creating a company name that not only helps identify your micro business, but also helps set-it apart. When getting started with the naming process, you’ll want to review the groundwork of your business which includes your mission statement, business plan and your selling proposition. If you’re going into business with others, a brainstorming session may be helpful so you can have several suggestions to choose from. Even if you’re creating a sole proprietorship, don’t be afraid to collaborate with friends and families.

A few tips you’ll want to keep in mind are keeping your business name short, simple, and easy for your customers to write and remember. A few things you’ll want to avoid are using “plain words” that can make it difficult to distinguish your company from a competitor. The use of plain words can also pigeonhole you in the eyes of your customers. For example if you name your company “Johnny’s Graphic Designs” but you provide a wider variety of services, your business name could hurt you.

Another important note is to not get too caught up with creativity via misspelled words. While it may work for some companies, often times it can cripple some of your marketing efforts. A good rule of thumb holds that unless you have a business with a store front where customers can see your creative spelling, you’re better off with a more traditional approach.

Before you officially make a decision on your business name, you’ll want to run these background checks to insure your business name is feasible both legally and logistically:

  • Trademark – Search the federal database of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Trademark Electronic Search System.
  • Existing Website – Given the importance of having an online presence via a company website, you should perform a search for a domain name (GoDaddy.com is a simple search tool). If your business name is not available as a domain, you may need to use an abbreviation, hyphens, or an alternate domain (such as .net or .biz). Another option is to move down your list of possibilities to the next business name you had brainstormed.
  • Search Engines – Run a variety of searches with Google and other popular search engines with your chosen business name to insure there isn’t another company already using your name.

While it’s not uncommon for businesses to change their name (Google was originally named “BackRub”), you’ll want to make sure you are satisfied with your company name and not say “if I’m not happy with it in six months, I’ll just change it.” Building brand awareness, both on and offline, takes time and effort and sticking with your company name can help get you achieve your goals quicker.

We’d love to hear your micro business company names and how you arrived at it. What thought process did you put into it, if any?

Micro Business Roundup

By | July 22, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Happy Friday all! We hope you had a great week and that you are staying cool as much of the country deals with record temperatures, power outages and other issues. Even with the hectic week, we wanted to take a minute to thank all of you who have taken a moment to vote for us for a Small Business Influencer award from Small Business Trends. If you haven’t voted for us yet, and would like to, feel free to CLICK HERE or on the button to the left (and if you have voted already, you are allowed to go vote again!). With that said, here is this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup. Have a wonderful weekend and please be sure to find something cool and refreshing to enjoy. Cheers!

Break through the Online Noise with ‘Likes’ – Like many other micro business owners, chances are you have established a Facebook page for your business. As you’ve built out to your page you are probably looking into different avenues to obtain ‘likes’ to your page, which may include trading likes with other local businesses. This Entrepreneur.com article takes a look at how reciprocal liking can help generate loyalty towards your micro business in just a few steps. Our favorite line of the article was “They (potential customers) expect relationships first, and purchases second.” We could not agree more.

Blogging For The Online Entrepreneur – Do you utilize blogging as part of your online presence? As you may have read before, blogs can be a great resource for your micro business to showcase its expertise and show existing and potential customers your industry knowledge. This SmallBizTrends.com article rounds up a few articles about the latest information in entrepreneurial blogging. We’d be interested to hear what area you were drawn to learn more from.

Small business program misses the mark – You may recall the talk of the Small Business Job Act from last year that included Congress setting aside $30 billion for the Small Business Lending Fund? Well it appears that program has not been as successful as the government had hoped. This CNNMoney.com article gives the full run down on how the program was laid out and where it may have gone wrong. If you had been following this piece of governmental news, what are your thoughts? Were you optimistic about the program helping small business, or did you see flaws?

Fundamentals Of Online Advertising – It’s no secret that online advertising has become an essential piece of any micro businesses marketing mix. The days of simply placing advertising in the local newspaper has become more complex with targeted ad buying online to specific demographics. This recent OpenForum.com article can help lay out the fundamentals for you if you are still unsure on where to get started. We’re strong believers in the “evaluate and test” piece of the article, as that motto is prevalent in our every day work here at Vistaprint and our “test before invest” culture.

10 Ways to Beat Online Obscurity – With over 150 million different blogs on the Internet, it is pretty easy to get lost among the seas and seas of “noise.” So how does your tiny micro business blog cut through the noise and reach anyone, let alone a group of folks who would be interested in your product or service? It is a good question, and the folks at CopyBlogger.com put together this list of ten ways to help you beat online murkiness. What methods are you utilizing now? What ideas are new to you that you may look to incorporate?

 

Image: Trade Newswire

Getting more Facebook fans for your small business

By | July 21, 2011 | Micro Business Tips | No comments

For this week’s edition of Micro Business Tip Thursday (more info here), we decided to focus on a hot topic we posted earlier this week – adding fans to your company’s Facebook page.

Dozens of fans from our Facebook page commented on the question: What is the best way to acquire new Facebook fans for your business?

We selected this tip from Jessa J. Elsing:

“The best way to build Facebook fans that I have found is to stay active on your page. Post at least twice a day, encourage others to share with friends, offer up to the minute notification of new offers and deals.”

Click here to see all of this week’s tips.

How do you grow fans on your business’ Facebook page? Do you post regularly as Jessa suggests or something else? We’d love to hear your strategy below.

Be sure to tune into our Facebook page next Thursday for your chance to have your Micro Business tip featured on this blog.

Increasing your fans and followers on social media

By | July 20, 2011 | Micro Business Issues, Social Media | 1 Comment

One of the more common questions that we hear when we talk to customers about social media is, “how do I get more fans and followers?”

Unfortunately there is no one-word answer for this question. Building up a vibrant community takes a lot of hard work, no matter the size of your company. Below are four methods that both micro businesses and mega-conglomerates can benefit from.

Das Papamobil kommt! Nr. 5Website real estate – One of the easiest ways to increase awareness to social media accounts is to add buttons or widgets to your site that links to your social media accounts. Not only will your customers see that you have a presence, but they can also check out your social profiles or become a fan or follower without leaving your page.

Both Facebook and Twitter offer free resources to make the functionality seamless and people can become fans/followers without leaving your page. Click here to get the code for Facebook and here for the code for Twitter. If you prefer to go with social media icons, here is a site where you can download different variations of the icons for free.

In-store promotion – Another great way to promote your social media accounts is to publicize them within your store. A good way to increase people to check out and join your community is to offer something that they cannot get elsewhere.

Many companies will offer exclusive deals on Twitter or Facebook where they offer a printable coupon to be redeemed in the store. Social networks also allow you to showcase some of the behind the scenes action of your business that will keep loyal customers coming back to your page for more.

Marketing integration – Be sure to add links to your social profiles when sending marketing materials to your customers. For online newsletters and emails, add in social media icons that add to your pages. On offline pieces, like postcards or flyers, add text URLs for your pages along with the network icon. This will help drive traffic to your community and potentially help convert leads into sales.

Facebook ads – If you have some additional budget, you can create targeted Facebook ads to acquire new fans. These ads can be based on location, interest or target friends of your existing fans. If you are interested in running these ads, check out our step-by-step post on setting up a Facebook ad.

Don’t get discouraged if your fan/follower base does not become an overnight success. Building a community takes time, so have some patience. If you have any further questions on growing your community, feel free to ask in the comments below, on our Facebook page or Tweet us.

Image - dustpuppy

Three grassroots marketing tactics to boost local leads

By | July 18, 2011 | Marketing | 3 Comments

If you were to ask your fellow micro business owners what their favorite forms of advertisement was, you would probably get a variety of different answers.

flyersMany would respond with traditional mediums like direct mail and online marketing, to some of the newer mediums like social media and group-buying sites. One medium that you would probably not hear about would be grassroots marketing, which is a shame.

Unlike many of the methods mentioned above, grassroots marketing efforts directly target potential customers in your local community.  Below are three common methods of grassroots marketing that may help you boost leads within your town or serving area:

Community Bulletin Boards – If you have ever sat on a bench or used a payphone at a supermarket, town hall or local watering hole, chances are that you saw a bulletin board close by filled with business cards, brochures or flyers. These spaces are often free for anyone in the community to post their events or business information on. Aside from the ideal cost, the space also offers you an audience that is located in your serving area. Why not pin up a few a business card or a flyer outlining your services with a coupon attached?

Business Partnerships – Chances are that you routinely frequent local businesses that are not in direct competition with you. If you have a good rapport with these business owners, reach out and see if you can exchange placements within your locations to promote one another’s businesses. Now this does not mean posting billboards to the other’s store inside your location, rather exchanging space on each other’s counters or windowsills. This space is ideal for a display with your brochures in it to expose your business to other local patrons. Be sure to ask the business before doing this and stop by frequently to replenish the supplies.

Local Events – Does your town host an annual picnic, carnival or fireworks display? If it does, take a look to see what kinds of sponsorship they offer. If there is none or if it is out of your price range for a full sponsorship, ask the organizers if they mind you setting up a booth or table at the event. With that space, you’ll be in a prime location to network and discuss your service with potential clients.

Has your business participated in a grassroots marketing effort? If so we’d love to hear more in the comments below.

Micro Business Roundup

By | July 15, 2011 | Micro Business Roundup | No comments

Hello everyone! We hope you had a great week and that you are getting a break from the heat like our team is. Earlier this week, our team received some interesting news – Vistaprint has been nominated for a Small Business Influencer award from Small Business Trends. While it is an honor to be nominated, we would like to win. For that, we will need your help. If you enjoy Vistaprint’s services, love this blog or just like voting, feel free to CLICK HERE or on the button to the left. We appreciate your help in advance for helping us with this. Here is this week’s edition of the Micro Business Roundup. Have a great weekend.

The small business bottom line – How well do you know your businesses finances? This thought provoking post from Small Business Trends takes a look at what you should be considering before entering into new expenditures including online marketing and social media.

The SEO cupcake – This article from Duct Tape Marketing takes a look at one of the more enticing but often confusing marketing tactics for businesses with a website – SEO. Instead of writing technical jargon, Jon Janstch compares some of the finer points of SEO as they relate to levels of a cupcake.

Sniping at charges for swiping debit cards – Does your business take payment via debit cards? If so, you might want to check out this article in Businessweek that takes a look the on-going battle between banks and business owners on transaction fees charged when debit cards are swiped.

How small businesses can keep customers satisfied – This is a great article on ways to successfully communicate with your customer base and how to leverage the findings to keep your customers happy.

Small businesses that understand social media – Typical social media case studies typically aren’t relevant for small and micro business owners. While they may be good to read and get inspiration from, they often focus on large companies with vast resources and can’t be replicated by small companies. This New York Times article changes that dynamic as it focuses on two small businesses that have seen success in social media. This is definitely a post you should bookmark for inspiration for your company’s social efforts.

What is the most important trait when hiring an employee?

By | July 14, 2011 | Micro Business Tips | 3 Comments

Today is Thursday, so it is time for a new micro business tip from a real micro business. If you are new to the site, each week we do Micro Business Tip Thursday (more info here) in conjunction with our Facebook fan page where we ask the community to answer a question that pertains to other micro businesses.

Today’s question was: What is the most important trait when hiring an employee?

After reviewing dozens of great responses, we selected this answer from Dr. Ronald Shapiro of Providence, Rhode Island:

 There is no one size fits all answer to this question. The answer really depends on what the job is. A few examples — if I were hiring a designer it would probably be creativity (assuming knowledge of the discipline, of course). If I were hiring a tier 1 customer service representative it would probably be social skills (product line could probably be learned). If I were hiring a physician it would probably be diagnostic (or surgical) skills (assuming knowledge of the field). If I were hiring a software tester it would be diagnostic skills (assuming requisite knowledge).

 

If you want to see all of the entries from this week, click here.

What do you look for in hiring new employees?

Be sure to tune into our Facebook page next Thursday to have your Micro Business tip featured on this blog.

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