Having a Professional Image

It is important as a small business owner to present a professional image to your clients. There are several ways to prove your professionalism:

• The telephone. If you answer the phone in a casual, unprofessional way, people will think your business is exactly that. Answer the phone in a clear tone. Never use slang terms or words you would use casually, like "sort of," "I dunno," or "kinda." Answer questions with straightforward responses.
• Your voice mail. Make sure your voice mail message is professional. Do not make it sound like a message on a personal phone. In the message, make sure to say the business's name. You can also include your work hours.
• Your identity. This includes your logo, printed materials, and web site. Hiring a graphic designer can be costly. But having a logo made in Microsoft Paint can be even more costly. In this day and time, people judge heavily on the material you give them. If the logo is unprofessional, printed materials are sloppy, and web site unorganized, that will definitely say something to your customers. Hire a graphic design student to do your work. They will usually offer cheaper rates or even work for free so they can build their portfolio.
• Your forms. Again, a lot can be said about the company when they hand out their forms, invoices, and receipts. Make sure your forms are organized, simple, and straightforward.

Thinking through and implementing these small details will really help your business's professional image.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Strengthen Your Website with Videos

Improving your website should always be priority. Visitors (and search engines) love new content. Visitors especially enjoy interactive material. These elements not only allow the viewer to look but to interact and become part of it.

Videos are no new thing to the Internet. However, you can always put videos on your website. It will increase your traffic and sales as the visitor interacts with the content.

Adding a video to your homepage will increase click-throughs. A human's mind can process information extremely quickly. Having only static images and text can turn away a visitor in less than a second. Motion will cause the visitor to stay longer to see everything. It will intrigue the viewer to either stay on the page longer or to move on to another page in your site. Although it will not make all visitors stay, it can most certainly increase your overall traffic.

Uploading videos is as simple as uploading a photo. In your website program, simply add a video in the place you need. Or, find a video website, like YouTube, that can host the video. You can then take the code and plug it into your website.

Watch the improvement in your sales and traffic when you add videos on your website. It could be just what you need to keep up with or beat your competitors.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Attack the New Year with an Advertising Plan

With each new year comes new opportunities. How your company will grow depends upon how you want your company to grow. Sit down and spend some time brainstorming on new marketing approaches and goals for the year.

Ask yourself some of these questions:

• What are your long-term goals?
• What are your short-term goals?
• What is your elevator pitch? Has it changed from the last year?
• What message do you want to get across to your clients? How can you better portray that message?
• How will you introduce potential clients to your company? Will you increase e-mail newsletters, postcards, trade show exhibits, etc? Set a goal for all of your marketing material.
• What products/services will you offer that are different from the older products/services? How will you promote them better than the year before?

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Using Social Network Sites to Promote Your Business

To help your company continue to grow in the expansive Internet, try social networking web sites. Social networking sites create human connections. They help you to make new relationships with other businesses. You can effectively promote your business. In addition, they allow you to have a strong link back to your website.

Although online communities are thought of as something for just those 25 year and younger, these sites have been pushing the boundaries. They become such a powerful asset that companies who shrug them off are most certainly losing out in the long run.

Online communities basically give you a page to write about yourself and/or your company. You can write about anything you want on your page. Make sure you have a link to your company's web site. This will really strengthen your external links and your PageRank. Depending on the site, you will be able to make friends, join groups, or even have other people become a fan of your company.

Here is a list of some social networking sites that are free:

• LinkedIn - Connects professionals - www.linkedin.com
• Spoke - Connects companies - www.spoke.com
• Facebook - Connects individuals - www.facebook.com
• MySpace - Connects individuals (usually a younger audience) - www.myspace.com

Seeing that the sites are free and the outcome is great, you really have nothing to lose.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Wise Tips to Sending E-mails

Marketing through E-mail, despite its bad reputation, can be an effective way to promote your business. How and when you send the message will greatly affect whether it gets viewed or not. Consider the following questions when developing your e-mail marketing campaign:

• What type of e-mail are you sending? Are you sending e-coupons, newsletters, customer success stories, or an ad of a new product? Depending on your business, you can implement many different types of approaches. Varying the type of e-mail will keep the viewer interested and intrigued.
• When your customers will look at e-mail positively? Would they be more likely to view the e-mail in the morning during work hours, afternoon at their lunch break, or evening at home? Would they be more willing to view the message on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday?
• How often will you send email? Do you plan on sending it once a week, once a month, etc? Consistency is key here. If you plan to send out an e-mail a week, make sure you send out an e-mail a week.
• Always have holidays and special events in mind. Including them proves that the e-mail has been well thought out and is thus not a generic template.
• If you have an e-mail with a link to your website, provide a special page and, using a website analytical program (Google offers one for free), see how many people visit that page. This will measure the success of your e-mail.
  

Considering these few ideas will strengthen your marketing campaign. Experiment to see what works for your company.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

E-mail Campaigns

E-mail is one of many ways to promote your business. It can be your strongest asset if handled correctly. Marketing campaigns via email can really help to strengthen a business. You can promote new products/services, give away coupons, or offer words of wisdom. There are a few things that can really help save time, promote your business,and keep your customers interested.

Firstly, remember to ALWAYS put a link to your website in your e-mails. You want your customers to get excited and visit your site for more information. Think how detrimental that could be if you did not include a link to your site.

One thing that will save time and effort is to plan ahead. Write, design, and complete all the e-mails you are sending out that year. If you want to do a twice-a-month e-mail, make 24 designs. To get started, you can set up the campaigns like this:

Month: (use the date which you will send the e-mail)

Subject: (title of the e-mail)

Body: (all the content used in the body of the e-mail. Specify the pictures, colors, and the exact wording.)

Tips for the Subject:

• Keep it short and simple. Never use more than 10 words. Using 5 words is even better. Use strong and direct words, never "fluff" adjectives like "very."
  
• Ask a question. This will entice the viewer to want to see more. Use seasons and holidays in your title. Something like "Lose 10 pounds for the summer" or "Back to school tips" will helped the e-mail to be viewed more.
• Never use the word "free," "limited time offer," "buy now," or other sales terms. These are considered spam keywords and your e-mail will most likely be blocked. Also, don't make the words in all caps or end in multiple exclamation points.

Tips for the Body:

• Show the benefits of your product/service/advice.
• Never make the e-mail apparently generic. Try to make the e-mail personal, like you wrote it just for them.
• Like the season/holiday-related subject, make your body be similar.Use bright yellows and blues for summer. Use fall leaf images in autumn or emerald evergreen trees in December.
• Again, don't use the spam keywords.

When you plan ahead with you e-mail campaigns, you will never run into the "it's the end of the day and I forgot to send out our monthly e-mail." Your e-mails will be more thought through if you take the time to sit down once and write them all out. You will be glad you planned ahead when your day is busy.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Your Target Audience

When starting a new ad campaigns, product line, or even a different approach, it is vital to know your audience. Each target audience is different. Each group has different likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc. BMW's audience is far different than Walmart's, and both are targeted differently. To best appeal to your customers you must take the time to assess your target audience. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is the target audience's gender?
• What is their age range? Are you trying to appeal to teenagers who like bright, edgy products or middle-aged adults who lean towards neutral colors and solid products?
• What is their level of education?
• What is their yearly income? (Take time to compare how high-end products differ from consumer products. For instance, compare Nordstroms to JC Penny's.)
• What are the target audience's hobbies? Do they prefer golfing or bowling? Do they prefer television or reading novels?
• Are they single or married? Are they parents? Grandparents?
• What qualities are important to them? Do they prefer prestige, quality, or an inexpensive price?
• Why will they like your product? What does your company have to offer?
• If you want to go even farther, compile a bio of individual people that make up the targeted audience. You can even include their photo.

When you complete your assessment, you will have a stronger foundation for your project.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (http://www.firststarcapital.com). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.

Get the Most Out of Advertising

This year, spend less on advertising and get the same or even better results! Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Don't go too big. You may not need full page color print ads or animated online advertising. Try two-color or black and white print advertising and test your response rate. There is some indication that people will pay more attention to ads with less color because it is out of the norm.
  
• Wait until the last minute to place your ad order. The advertising salespeople will be more inclined to drop prices in order to meet their quotas.
  
• For print advertising, demand that you get the right-hand page in the front of the publication. Studies show this area can generate twice the results as a left-hand page towards the back.
  
• Avoid advertising in places dominated by your competitors. If you are competing against similar companies, you will inherently attract a lower percentage of potential customers.
  

Following these simple tactics can help decrease your advertising spending while maintaining or increasing your marketing results.

Brad Harmon is the President at a leading financing company, First Star Capital (http://www.firststarcapital.com/ ). Brad is a frequent contributor to online publications and newsletters, and is the author of this blog on commercial financing topics.