Alpha Oracle

  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Lead Generation
  • Business Development
    • Expert Positioning
  • Marketing
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Archives for Small Business

By Charlie Lyons

The Death of Email Marketing is Greatly Exaggerated

According to Forbes.com, Email Marketing is still more effective than Social Media Marketing. The bottom line when it comes to our marketing efforts is how well they convert, that is, succeed in getting us the decisions we desire, whether that is opt-ins to a mailing list, direct sales, click or other responses. Throughout the years, email marketing has been a standard in this regard, providing new customers and sales. Recently as the focus has shifted to the far more exciting and sexy world of social media marketing, email has sometimes become the unloved stepchild, and essentially forgotten, at least as far as popular marketing methods go.

Nothing could be more incorrect!

As decidedly unsexy and “tired” as some might have you think email marketing is, the facts definitely prove otherwise! A thorough study by Custora shows exactly how profitable email is! Instead of being on the wane, this study of some 72 Million customers reveals that customer acquisition rates  using email have actually quadrupled during the last four years, and what’s more is that these same customers are about 10 times as valuable as those received from either Facebook or twitter. Even though the mantra has always been in social media not to brazenly sell to your followers, it’s perhaps no real surprise that email leads to far more conversions than social media. There will probably come a time when social media starts to catch up, but as of this writing, that’s not anytime soon.

How to allot your marketing efforts

Since email still results in an ROI in excess of $40 for every $1 spent, while social media remains mired well beneath $1, you would be wise to use your assets accordingly. One terrific use of social media at this point in time is to funnel prospects to your email lists, by providing a taste of what your brand is about, and saving the selling for email down the road. The conclusion here is to not subscribe to all the hype about email being a dead marketing channel. That could be a very costly blunder!

Filed Under: Business Growth Strategies, Email Marketing, Small Business

By Charlie Lyons

How to Be Proactive with Bad Online Reviews

Everyone has an opinion, and unfortunately as a business owner some of those opinions could cause your business a great deal of trouble. Managing your online reputation is a must-do item on your daily checklist. Forget to do it, and you might find people deserting you in droves. Bad reviews are a fact of online life. They are so easy to post, and can sway large segments of the audience in your favor or not. The secret is getting a lot more of the positive to outweigh the unavoidable negative.

What to do with a negative review

Follow these 3 steps and develop your own system for taking care of a negative review whenever it does surface.

  1. Make customer service a top priority – A big part of the reason companies wind up in the position of having to deal with a negative online review is that often there’s a failure in their customer service or support. Often times customers are reaching out through various channels, including email, Facebook, Twitter or in blog comments. Frequently these are overlooked for too long, resulting in one mad customer, who feels like they have no alternative other than to vent their aggravations on an online review site. In most cases, usually the whole scenario could have been avoided by paying a little more attention to your social and internal channels.
  2. Be professional at all times – The worst thing you should do is get in to an online shouting match with a client. This will not turn out well for you, ever! Even if you are right, you’re completely wrong to engage in this fashion, as it will scale this problem to heights you wouldn’t think possible. Strive to remain professional, generous, and attempt to keep that customer, or at least make sure you don’t lose more of them! Because this type of customer usually represents about 1% of your customer base, it’s simply not worth the trouble it causes.
  3. Foster positive reviews – One of the ways you can actively help your online reputation is asking for positive reviews of your product or service form your happy customers. Many are glad to help you, and if these appear frequently, the chances that the occasional negative review will stand a chance of remaining high in the search results are slim. Consider it as not just as managing your online reputation, but as a way of promoting your business, for nothing!

The important thing in dealing with negative reviews is to be alert when they occur, handle customers with respect and professionalism, and make managing your online reputation a very high priority! In this time of instant communication, you virtually have no choice.

Filed Under: Reputation Management, Review Management, Small Business

By Charlie Lyons

Humor Sells. Are You Using Humor To Increase Sales?

The great 19th Century Irish playwright and humorist Oscar Wilde uttered these last words: “Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.” Why some adventurous wallpaper company hasn’t used this is beyond me, but it does go to underscore the reality that humor sells. Humor effectively disarms people, often by getting them to see your point in a way they hadn’t thought of before, and initiates rapport that you may have had a hard time creating some using your latest PowerPoint filed with facts. Art Linkletter told us that laughter is the best medicine, and he was spot on. It might be the cure for what ails your company as well! Let’s check out 4 ways to use humor in your small business marketing.

4 easy ways to use humor in your small business marketing!

Take advantage of pop culture – This is a generation that has largely left the evening news in favor of the likes of Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert and the other late night mavens that have built careers around the daily misfortunes of celebrities, sports stars and politicians. It’s all fair game, so don’t be afraid to use your share if you can find a way to make it humorous. Getting the audience smiling and in a good spirits right from the start can go quite some distance toward helping build rapport with them.

Make humorous videos – It will only take a few moments on YouTube for ample evidence to persuade anybody that a funny video gets lots of eyeballs! Even the lamest concept, shown in a quirky way will get views and get shared widely. It doesn’t take a degree in cinema to make it happen either. Many simply shoot them with their phone, o if you want to go whole hog, use an app like GoAnimate or Xtranormal to make quick and visually interesting animated videos.

Create funny memes – Who hasn’t encountered these on Facebook and other social sites? Incorporating this concept with the millions of users on sites like Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr is a recipe for outrageous traffic numbers.

Use humor in your content – Don’t be bashful with respect to getting a little edgy with your content. The payoff will likely be that folks will see you as more like them, and not simply some stodgy firm bent on selling them something. The more you connect on a shared (and funny!) level, the better people will like you and share your site.

Filed Under: Business Growth Strategies, Creativity, Increase Sales, Small Business

By Charlie Lyons

How To Bring Innovation Into Your Small Business

It would only stand to reason that a smaller, more agile company should be best positioned to create the most revolutionary ideas. Well, this isn’t necessarily so. Lacking several key ingredients, such as money for R & D, available staff, and a lack of vision that big companies can make happen, small businesses are discovering that their challenge lies in learning how to innovate in spite of, and sometimes because of these facts. A recent study by Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley of the University of Chicago called What do Small Businesses Do? discovered that fewer than 50 percent of new business start-ups were born from a “new idea”. Additionally, they learned that most of these new businesses are essentially more of the same, offering an additional coffee shop, bakery or tax service to a marketplace stuffed with these services. Not much innovation, greater competition, and little chance at exponential growth.

So precisely what does it take for a small business to go from the ordinary to a business that is leading innovative ideas in their space?

4 Strategies to generate a culture of innovation in your business!

  • Encourage innovation – Rewarding your employees with tangible perks for helping to try new and innovative initiatives is an easy way to help launch your company’s venture into innovation. Try to create a buzz around discovering new and better ways to conduct  business and improve products and services.
  • Understand your markets’ needs and desires – Keep up with current trends and ideas in your market. Make sure to be hooked in to all the news and views that are effecting your company, and take action on what you hear and see!
  • Connect with existing customers – So that you can truly understand what may be a great idea for your customer, you have to talk to them. And even more than that, you ought to keep the conversation centered on customer’s problems, and shape your ideas to provide those solutions!
  • Be ready to try new things! – Don’t be afraid to be innovative. A shining demonstration of a company ready to fill a need is Behance.net, a Web-based platform for creative works, where artists can show their work regardless of their resumes, seeking to turn more ideas into reality.

Filed Under: Business Growth Strategies, Creativity, Small Business

By Charlie Lyons

How A Flat Design Can Make Your Website Really Pop

Everything comes full circle, even web design. You might not have noticed it yet, but there’s a brand new trend in town, and its name is flat web design. It’s capturing the industry, and the thing is it’s really been around since Microsoft introduced it in 2006.

So what is it that makes a “flat” web design?

Flat design is simply a design devoid of drop shadows, gradients, and textures that have ruled web design for a few years now. Flat design employs brighter, solid colors and a lot of “white space”. Typography often figures noticeably into flat design.

Why the rebellion from 3D to flat design?

There are several reasons why this is taking place, but possibly the most compelling reason is that it’s an invention born out of necessity. The 2D environment that designers often have to work in, in this ever-more mobile world, necessitates economy of scale.

It’s become more and more difficult to cram all you might want onto a 4-inch screen, making a 3D simulation somewhat counterproductive and incompatible with a great user experience. Having a flat design pages load faster, are less bulky and are more responsive. In a competitive world in which you have a few short seconds to win over and hook your visitors, every second counts.

Trend or is flat web design here to stay?

The jury is still out on that, but suffice it to say that if it is a trend, elements of it may be hard to dismiss quickly. Apple is rumored to be considering a flat design for the next operating system, the iOS7. If it does turn out to be a fad, the simplicity and user-friendly functionality of flat web design might give it a lengthier shelf life than you might think!

Filed Under: Business Growth Strategies, Creativity, Small Business, Website Design

By Charlie Lyons

4 Smart Tips For Using #Hashtags Effectively

4 Tips for Using #Hashtags Effectively

Know what a #Hashtag is? If you’re not a social media expert, and especially Twitter, you may not have a clue just what a #hashtag is. No need for that being the situation any longer. A hashtag is a # followed by a word or phrase to perform a number of functions. Twitter users affix hashtags to tweets as search conventions, a method of categorizing, and marketing tactics. #Hashtags may also be used in other social media platforms.

#Hashtags guidelines

Be certain to do your standard due diligence and see if the keyword you’d prefer to use is not being used somewhere else. This is as easy as doing a little research (a search on Search.Twitter.com) to ascertain if that #Hashtag will be a good option. Also, don’t try to make hay with deceiving #hashtags, even if they may be seriously trending. This will almost assuredly blow up on you. One more thing: be sure to proofread before you make that #hashtag!

4 Ways to win with #hashtags

  1. Make your #hashtags short and direct – Keeping it brief and direct is the best way to win with #hashtags. If you wish to combine more than one, fine, but don’t string together a small army of them, as that will actually annoy readers and label you an amateur.
  2. Make them #hashtags to remember – Remarkable #hashtags are far more likely to be shared widely. Give some thought to this and you might get your wish and have it go viral.
  3. Use them on multiple social media channels – A #hashtag isn’t much use if it’s not shared. Although started on Twitter, #hashtags have become employed across multiple social media channels including Facebook, Google , LinkedIn and Pinterest. This assists to instill the #hashtag into the minds of their audience.
  4. Use keywords – If you can. It’s not necessarily possible, but try and work in your brand or primary keywords.

Creating and making use of memorable #hashtags can keep your brand and conversation before your social media audience, and help perpetuate your campaigns. Give it a try today!

Filed Under: Business Growth Strategies, Creativity, Small Business, Twitter

Search

Questions? Call Us

888.300.6252

Recent Posts

  • The Death of Email Marketing is Greatly Exaggerated
  • How to Be Proactive with Bad Online Reviews
  • Humor Sells. Are You Using Humor To Increase Sales?
  • How To Bring Innovation Into Your Small Business
  • How A Flat Design Can Make Your Website Really Pop

Secure Transactions

Authorize.Net Merchant - Click to Verify
Secure Transaction Statement

Trusted Commerce

This site is protected by VikingCloud's Trusted Commerce program
guarantee_seal_red

Company Profile

Founded in 2004, Alpha Oracle is a consulting firm providing business growth strategy, business development, lead generation, sales automation, and public relations for SMBs and SMEs. Entrepreneurs and professional organizations alike rely on our expertise to help them boost sales revenue, increase profitability and fulfill their sales and marketing … [Continue reading...]

Recent Posts

  • The Death of Email Marketing is Greatly Exaggerated
  • How to Be Proactive with Bad Online Reviews
  • Humor Sells. Are You Using Humor To Increase Sales?
  • How To Bring Innovation Into Your Small Business
  • How A Flat Design Can Make Your Website Really Pop
  • 4 Smart Tips For Using #Hashtags Effectively

(888) 300-6252

  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Lead Generation
  • Business Development
    • Expert Positioning
  • Marketing
  • Contact

Search

Return To Top of Page

Copyright © 2004 - 2025 | Alpha Oracle | All Rights Reserved
TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | DISCLAIMER

  • Home
  • About
  • News
  • Lead Generation
  • Business Development
  • Expert Positioning
  • Marketing
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Opt-out preferences
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}