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Americans don’t feel optimistic about the economy in 2024, and that includes small-business owners. In fact, nearly half of small-business owners believe that 2024 will be a “make or break” year for their business. 

Turning your small business into a success can seem like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but it was built day by day. Your small business will be built the same way — by stacking one productive day on top of another. 

Keep reading for tips on how small-business owners can organize their days for maximum productivity.

Know what needs to be done

As a small-business owner, being maximally productive each day could be the difference between building a profitable business for yourself and commuting for hours to a job you hate and working for a horrible boss. 

The first step toward productivity is knowing exactly what you need to get done. Survey the tasks at hand and organize them. You can use task apps or a project management tool for this. What needs to get done in the next hour, in the next day, in the next week, or in the next month? Tackle the most urgent tasks first to ensure you address everything that needs to get done and then work your way down the list.

Set priorities and keep the big picture in mind

A lot of your workday will be spent on urgent tasks, such as paying invoices, attending meetings, and returning phone calls and emails. This day-to-day work is highly important because it keeps the gears of your business turning. 

But don’t forget to take time to zoom out, too. Although work on immediate needs keeps the business running, big-picture moves are the key to large-scale success. Think of it as the difference between making a quick $500 or making a long term $5 million. 

Recruiting the right employees, plotting ways to expand, and brainstorming new product or marketing initiatives have a massive impact on your future success, but those tasks never really need to be completed immediately. Set aside some time for this important work or your business could become stagnant. 

Create a schedule

When you know what tasks you need to do, place them all into a simple schedule using an hourly planner template. Structure your workday with the most urgent tasks first, and stack your most cognitively demanding tasks in your most productive periods. For most people, that’s usually early in the workday or around midday. Complete your easiest, least-taxing work — such as data entry — at the end of the day. 

Indecision is one of the biggest thieves of your time, so once you compose your schedule, stick to it. Be careful not to overschedule yourself. This will become easier as you get accustomed to scheduling your day and get a better feel for how much time different types of work require. Once you get good at composing your schedule, make the next day’s schedule as your last task each day so you can hit the ground running each morning.

Finally, if you discover that you simply cannot fit all your work into your day, you might have to seriously consider letting other employees handle some of your responsibilities. 

Delegate and automate

As your small business picks up momentum, you’ll need to make some hard choices about what kind of work is the best use of your time. 

If you’re the founder and you have to make high-stakes decisions, it doesn’t make sense for you to spend a significant percentage of your time on mundane work that others could do. Consider hiring support staff or a virtual assistant to handle simple logistical work, such as scheduling, document management, payroll, and other administrative tasks. 

You can also delegate mid-level tasks once you’ve hired some trusted employees, but you must resist the urge to micromanage them. Nothing brings down workplace morale like a boss who stands behind your chair and dictates how to do everything.

When you’re streamlining and creating efficient processes, look for opportunities to incorporate automation into your business. Customer service is one field that can be handled largely by artificial intelligence, such as chatbots. Outsourcing it to AI can translate into significant savings for your business. 

Remove distractions

Help yourself focus by removing distractions from your workspace. If you have trouble staying off your phone, keep it in a locked drawer or in the next room. There are also apps that will lock out any time-wasting sites for preset periods of time. 

If your coworkers are a source of distraction, establish firm boundaries. Some experts suggest having open-door office hours, during which your coworkers are free to drop in. Outside of that limited time window, you’re to be left alone so you can focus on work. 

Don’t multitask, monotask instead

Studies have shown that multitasking is actually an extremely inefficient way to work. Each shift in your attention requires a relatively long adjustment period to refocus, so you end up wasting more time than you’re actually working. Experts estimate that it takes around 20 minutes to fully refocus after you shift your attention from one task to the next. That means if you shuttle between three tasks, you’ll waste a full hour for each “circuit” of multitasking.  

A much better way to work is monotasking. This simply means focusing intently on a single task until it’s complete and then shifting to the next task. This maximizes your attention span by forcing you to focus until you enter a “flow state” and dramatically reduces wasted time. 

Take breaks

If you’re maximizing your day by working in intense bursts, you’ll need to pause and recharge periodically. Build short breaks into your schedule so you can relax a little before you tackle the next action item on your schedule. Reward yourself with social media check-ins or a walk around the block before starting your next task.

With nearly half of Americans stressed about a poor work-life balance, it’s crucial to take time for yourself. Resist the temptation to skip or work through breaks. Burnout is real and will severely reduce your productivity over the long term. 

Featured Image by Brad Neathery on Unsplash

The post Organizing Your Day for Maximum Small-Business Productivity appeared first on noupe.

By now, you can’t swing a small business plan without hitting an article highlighting the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is that magical combination of keywords, links, and other relevant technological adjustments that make your website more relevant, more popular, and more profitable. 

But when the global landscape of the internet gets noisy, focusing on local SEO tactics can help boost your small business visibility. If the prospect of capturing more customers from right down the street is attractive, here are 12 local SEO tactics to help you improve your online presence, get more feet in the door (or eyes or your site), and convert more browsers to buyers.

What Is Local SEO?

Local SEO functions in much the same way as regular SEO does. But this digital marketing strategy focuses on local search results — the sites that pop up when users add the words “near me” to their queries. It is tailor-made to help small and brick-and-mortar businesses connect with customers who are actively seeking a local service or product. SEO is a critical piece of the puzzle for businesses that rely on foot traffic or business at a single shop. 

Why is local SEO so important?

Getting on the first page of Google’s search results is critical for any business, but it’s life-saving for small businesses. Focusing on local SEO has another perk: a space on Google’s Local Pack, that coveted spot in your area’s top three search results that’s displayed on the first page.

How to Use Local SEO

Unless you have excess cash to throw at Google advertising, consider local SEO more of a marathon than a sprint. Even though it takes a little time to build momentum, many of these 12 tactics can have immediate results.

1. Optimize your Google My Business (GMB) listing

The first step even professional SEO services will take is to optimize your Google My Business listing. This snippet of information appears on the right side of a search results page, and it’s often the first interaction a customer has with your business. 

Start by claiming and verifying your listing, then check your business name, address, and phone number (NAP) for accuracy and consistency across any listings. This is important if you have multiple locations. Add at least three high-quality photos of your business and any relevant products or services. Ensuring the accuracy of your NAP in SEO can significantly enhance your local search visibility and overall online presence.

2. Conduct keyword research

If you regularly blog or post online to social media and see no increase in website traffic (or traffic in your store), it’s time to do some keyword research. Google’s keyword planner has free tools that anyone can use to identify relevant local keywords for your business. This means looking for short keywords and longer text strings (long-tail keywords), plus more conversational questions that natural language processing (NLP) models can understand. Incorporate these keywords naturally in your GMB profile and website content.

3. Don’t sleep on mobile optimization

The best millennial marketing focuses on mobile optimization, but people of all ages use their smartphones more to find the local products and services they need. Your website should be simple and load quickly on smartphones. Go even further and optimize for voice search. This means that local customers can search via voice activation. 

4. Develop hyper-local content

Small businesses often make the mistake of trying to appeal to everyone when their customer base is right at home. Local content creation involves creating blog posts, articles, and videos specific to local interests and issues. Use your keyword research to identify location-specific keywords to determine the most relevant information.

This is also a great way to incorporate eye-catching videos. Make sure to optimize video titles and descriptions using your keyword research. 

5. Add your business to online directories

Online directories and review sites like Yelp and Yellow Pages have gotten a bad rap in the past. Knowing that anyone can go online and tank your business with their one-star review can be intimidating. However, most people using these sites are looking for the best products and services in their area — not looking to crush your dreams. Using these and other industry-specific directories helps get your name out there. Ensure your listing is consistent across all directories (and matches your GMB profile).

6. Seek out local links

Another way that Google ranks websites is through links. Link to local websites, news outlets, and blogs, and request a backlink from those sites to yours. The more websites that point visitors to your site, the better. Guest posting on a local website can also establish your authority and expertise in your community. 

7. Build your social media presence

Quite literally, everyone is on one social media platform or another these days. Maintaining an active presence on social media platforms that cater to your audience is essential. This doesn’t mean you must post across every new and old social media site. But identify where your prospective customers are and engage with them regularly. Use relevant keywords as hashtags on your posts, and consider developing a hashtag specific to your business.

8. Ask for online reviews

If you are a local business that is relevant to people who are not yet in your community, customer feedback and online reviews are critical. Consider the state-to-state moving company that needs to highlight how well they know their area. Online reviews are crucial and can be posted on platforms like Google, Yelp, and Facebook. Make sure to acknowledge all reviews, both positive and negative. 

Remember that negative reviews are like that rotten apple in the barrel. If you ignore them and don’t respond, many customers see that and move to the next company. The way to respond to a negative review is to contact the poster and ask them to get in touch to resolve the situation. Do not argue or otherwise state your case. 

9. Develop schema markup

Schema markup gives Google and other search engines more information about what is on your website. Using specific vocabulary, it labels the elements on your website, like product details, reviews, and a calendar of events. It might seem like a waste of time better spent pursuing your business’s financial goals, but it helps search engines better understand your content. 

Once search engines understand what you’re offering, this leads to more visually appealing search results, like better rich snippets (the auto-generated description that appears below your website name) that attract more local customers. Schema markup also improves your chances of appearing in the Local Pack because the search engine knows what you’re actually offering. 

10. Create geo-targeted ad campaigns

Some small businesses make the mistake of throwing all their spaghetti ads against the wall and seeing what sticks. However, a better strategy is to create geo-targeted pay-per-click ad campaigns that are only shown to local customers. This reduces your costs when people out of your area accidentally click and provides information for people who actually need it.

11. Add a geofence

If you’ve already created ad campaigns explicitly targeted to your customer base in your local community and have managed to collect phone numbers or emails from those ads, go one further and add a geofence. A geofence alerts customers to sales and special promotions or deals when they enter a specified area. This can be as far away as 5 miles or as close up as two blocks.

12. Monitor and analyze

Local SEO strategies are as subject to change as anything else on the internet. It’s important to use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track how your website is performing, including how it works after you’ve implemented your new strategies. Pay attention to organic search traffic, click-through rates, and conversion rates to adjust your strategy as needed. For example, if a local job market survey sees a reduction in the need for one of your services but a boost in demand for another, adjust your keywords and content focus accordingly, then see how your metrics change. If nothing moves (or the needle goes in the wrong direction), you know there is more work to be done.

Featured Image by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

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If you’re a small business owner, you can’t rely on long-established brand awareness or a major advertising campaign to reach your customers. In all likelihood, you’re going to have to do the heavy lifting on your own — and that starts by cultivating a personal brand. 

If people feel more connected to you as a business owner, they’re going to be more likely to trust your business when they need the products or services your industry provides. By establishing authenticity with your target audience, you can build a level of trust that pays off in more ways than one. 

What is personal branding?

Personal branding is about building a connection with your existing and potential customers. And it’s undeniably intuitive. Imagine you need a consultant to help elevate your business. Would you rather hire the detached, impersonal consultant whose backstory is so bare that you have no idea why they’re a consultant to begin with? Or would you rather hire someone who can explain what motivated them to get into the industry, why they’re still passionate, and how they’ve helped businesses like yours in the past?

In this example, the second consultant benefits from strong personal branding. By developing your personal brand, you demonstrate why you’re the perfect person to help your customers. Branding will also increase your credibility, authority, and make your business more visible.

Whether you’re a freelance writer, flower shop owner, or the head of a moving company, creating a personal brand is essential. Customers like to know who they’re working with. So, share your backstory. Show them what a day in your life is like, even if your business is currently a side hustle. Tell them about your successes, share when things go wrong, and explain what motivates you to keep going. 

Customers don’t expect you or your business to be perfect. You’re more relatable when they realize you have flaws just like them. Sharing it all through the lens of a personal brand can help you connect to the people you serve and build customer relationships for life.

8 steps for small business owners to create a personal brand

If you’re ready to improve your personal brand, here are eight steps to get you started.

1. Create a personal narrative

People love connecting with stories. If you share your journey to business ownership and your challenges, your customers can get to know you on a personal level. Many entrepreneurs share their upbringing, what inspires them, and how they get ideas. Don’t be afraid to mention any struggles you’ve overcome or current problems within your industry. People relate to authenticity, and letting your quirks and personality show through is okay.

You can also create personal narratives around each of your products and services. For example, maybe a trip to the zoo with your daughter inspired your new bouquet design. Or, perhaps you started a service specifically because it was something you wish you had when you started your business. These stories can help your customers not only relate to you — but to what you’re selling, too.

2. Understand your customer

When you own a business, it’s important to understand your customers’ needs. Get to know them. Chat with them on social media. Ask them questions. Once you get a deeper understanding of who they are, you can continue to hone your personal narrative in a way that relates to them better.

3. Develop your unique value proposition (UVP)

You have a unique value proposition (UVP) as a business owner. This is your selling point. It’s the reason why your business is the best one to help your customers achieve their goals. Make sure your customers know what those solutions are and why you, with all your knowledge and skills, are the best person to give it to them.

4. Regularly show up online

Whether you own a small or large business, it’s a great idea to show up online with strong social media marketing. Most people don’t expect to get in touch with the company owner when they have a question or a problem. By showing up online, letting folks peek behind the curtain, and being vulnerable, your customers can develop more of a personal connection with you. By being active on social media, you put a face to the company and give your audience a chance to know more about why you started the business and how it can help them.

5. Write a newsletter 

Another way to hone your personal brand is to write a newsletter. Over multiple emails, you can introduce yourself and your brand to every customer who signs up. Take your customers through the journey of starting your business. Tell them things about you only your friends or family know. Share a silly story, a time you messed up, or maybe when things finally clicked for your company. Be personable and shape your brand with every email you send out.

6. Connect with like-minded entrepreneurs

Meeting other entrepreneurs will help you see how other business owners develop their personal brands. You can collaborate with them on social media, or even create products together. Collaborating with like-minded entrepreneurs — whether they have a background similar to yours, or work in a closely related industry — can help you spread your message to more people.

7. Share testimonials

Once you’ve established an online presence and your email newsletter, start asking for testimonials. Testimonials help with your brand because they show how you’ve improved the lives of your customers. New customers might be able to see themselves in those testimonials, and they might convince them to try your products or services. To take them to the next level, include a photo of the customer (with their permission) or ask them to record a video testimonial talking about their experience. Consider offering discounts or bonuses for those who leave an honest review. 

8. Evaluate regularly

Your personal brand will change as you gain experience, overcome challenges, and grow your reputation. Make sure you’re still resonating with customers by auditing your newsletter and social channels each quarter. See what’s working and what’s not. Figure out what type of posts or emails connect with people and which get the most responses. Use that information to help you sharpen your personal brand and reach more people moving forward. Consistent improvement is just as important for small businesses as it is for the wealthiest entrepreneurs. 

The importance of personal branding is here to stay

These days, it’s more important than ever for entrepreneurs to have a personal brand. The practice of excessive formality is going away. Now, customers love to connect with small businesses on a human level — it makes them feel good to know they’re supporting someone who deserves their support. 

Having a personal story, being vulnerable, and interacting with customers can help business owners grow a fanbase and attract new clients and customers. 

Featured Image by Adam Winger on Unsplash

The post Elevating Your Business: The Impact of Personal Branding on Small Business Success appeared first on noupe.

If it’s unclear how critical mobile devices are in daily life, look around. With heads bent over phones and conversations streaming across imperceptible wireless earbuds, consumers rely on their smartphones and tablets for everything from finding a great restaurant to catching up with Grandma. If you’re a business owner debating whether or not to dive into mobile marketing, let these statistics help you take the leap: almost 97% of people between the ages of 16 and 64 own a smartphone, and they spend over 4.5 hours on it every day. Mobile marketing is on the rise — here are 14 strategies to help you meet your customers where they are.

1. Start with a mobile-friendly website

A mobile-friendly website means it’s optimized for devices. All text and graphics fit neatly on a smartphone or tablet screen without losing quality, and the design is responsive. Not only does this mean that consumers can interact with your business no matter where they are, but it also improves search engine rankings. It lays the foundation for successful mobile marketing efforts.

A mobile-friendly website is a great first step to take while you look into other strategies. Even if you take no additional steps, this one step alone will improve your customers’ user experience and help you get started with mobile marketing without breaking the bank.

2. Invest in text

Text messages sent to consumers have a higher open rate than marketing emails (98% compared to just under 20%). Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) are great ways to send time-sensitive promotions and updates but can also be used to send personalized messages and offers to customers. 

3. Develop an app

This one gets a bit more technical and may require some digital help, but developing a mobile app can give a bump to sagging sales and weak conversions. It’s a convenient, branded environment that allows customers to interact with products and check out services. Typical features such as push notifications and in-app promotions are great ways to catch customers’ attention. If you lack the technical skills or are on a budget and cannot afford to hire a developer just yet, a no code app builder can help you with this step.

4. Utilize geofencing

Another useful app feature is geofencing. Geofencing casts a net in a specified area (for example, a five-block or five-mile radius) that alerts customers when they enter it. This location-based marketing sends a message when customers enter the fence, offering special deals or promotions. This solution is excellent for businesses that don’t have significant native foot traffic.

5. Enable mobile payment solutions

Mobile payment solutions are fast, easy, and secure. These convenient mobile wallets enable contactless payments that can increase a consumer’s impulse purchases and enhance their overall experience. 

6. Don’t ignore the socials

The statistics are astonishing. Almost 100% of smartphone users access social media on their devices.  In fact, social media platforms are accessed predominantly via mobile devices.  If you are on a limited budget, spending most of your dollars on campaigns tailored to mobile social media users can increase engagement and conversions. This means adding vertical videos, creating swipeable content, branching out into growing platforms (TikTok, anyone?),  and including clear call-to-action (CTA) messaging.

7. Keep campaigns zippy

As much time as people spend on their mobile devices, very few are inclined to linger on one particular site. With attention spans shrinking, mobile campaigns must quickly get to the point. This means short, zippy texts that get to the point and videos that utilize jump cuts to keep customer attention.

8. Add QR codes

Want to bring more customers from the physical world into the digital one? Just add QR codes. This type of “phygital” marketing strategy bridges the gap between consumers who are used to a more hands-on approach but may be open to completing a sale or learning more online. A scannable QR code takes customers to your website, app, or special offers.

9. Optimize for voice search

Smart devices easily translate a verbal question into results (think asking a smartphone to find a business or requesting a playlist from Alexa). Recommendations are based on optimized search results. This means that descriptions and text match queries or requests that mimic human speech. Include long-tail keywords into website descriptions and add an FAQ site for distinct categories and offerings.

10. Get (sort of) real

Augmented reality (AR) is one way to create an immersive customer experience. Consider home goods stores that allow customers to upload a picture of their space and place products into it. This is incredibly convenient on a mobile device, where a customer can snap a quick picture or take a short video to immediately understand how a product might work for them.

11. Cultivate influencer partnerships

Millennials, in particular, are inclined to believe in trusted personalities online (influencers). If you are marketing to millennials, cultivating influencer partnerships can drive trust in your business and customer action. Which influencers you approach depends on your business goals. Some influencer markets, such as beauty and fashion, are more saturated than others, so take time to identify your target audience before getting into influencer partnerships. 

12. Run the numbers

Regardless of the marketing strategy, it’s essential to use data analytics to see how your mobile marketing strategies perform. This helps you better understand consumer behavior and personalize your marketing messages. You can set specific measurements for clicks and conversions, but sending out surveys to get direct consumer feedback is possible.

13. Make targeted changes

So what do you do with the feedback you get? You personalize your offerings. Personalization of content makes it more engaging for your target customer. You might divide your marketing messages into different categories based on age, gender, or other factors that relate to your various products and services. This segmentation can improve and refine your message so that more clicks become conversions. 

14. Don’t stand still

The rise of mobile marketing represents a fundamental and permanent change in how your business interacts with customers. These mobile strategies tap into endless possibilities and can increase your customer base.  They outline a roadmap for you to stay ahead of the curve as mobile marketing continues to evolve. 

Regardless of which you choose to implement, you must keep moving forward. Your customers are mobile, and your mobile marketing should be just as agile.

Featured Image by Gilles Lambert on Unsplash

The post The Rise of Mobile Marketing: 14 Strategies for Business Owners appeared first on noupe.

No matter your industry, creating a winning sales funnel can help you meet prospects where they’re at, so you can grow your customer base and meet your company’s financial goals. 

In the simplest of terms, the funnel starts with a wide pool of potential customers or clients, and eventually whittles its way down to those who actually follow through by giving you their business. 

Whether you’re a business owner, entrepreneur, or sales professional, here’s what you need to know about building a sales funnel to set your company up for financial success.

What Is a Sales Funnel?

There are many different sales funnel models, but we’ll dive into one of the simplest ones: the four-stage sales funnel. The four stages are: awareness, interest, decision, and action.

• The first stage, awareness, is at the very top of the pyramid. It’s where customers first become aware of your business and products or services. 
• The next stage, interest, refers to when a customer is comparing business options before making a decision. 
• The third stage, decision, is when the customer has reached the decision-making stage and is ready to choose a company.
• The last stage, action, refers to when the customer is ready to act and pay for a product or service.

You’ll want to develop a sales strategy around each of these four stages, attracting customers before they even know what your brand is with a good marketing approach, standing out from the competition when a prospect is weighing competitors, offering an incentive to go with your company when the customer reaches the decision-making stage, and staying engaged even if it’s clear a customer will buy from your company.

Some sales funnels go beyond this model to help you keep current customers happy. It’s important to consider this when coming up with a sales and marketing strategy to ensure current customers don’t drop off.

5 Ways to Build a Leading Sales Funnel

1. Dig into the data

Whether you’re building out customer personas, analyzing buying habits of customers in similar industries, or reviewing recent purchasing trends, it’s important to know more about the customers in your line of work.

For example, if you own a moving company and find the target demographic in your area is families, you can cater your advertising to attract more families to your business. Likewise, if you learn younger generations are more interested in a product your company makes, you can consider engaging with Gen Z on social media apps like TikTok or millennials on apps like Instagram.

2. Create a top-notch marketing strategy

Now that you know more about your target customers, you can create ad campaigns, social media posts, videos, and content pieces that speak to your key demographic. When creating ads, think about your audience’s key pain points, how your product or service solves this problem, and why you’re different from the competition. 

You can use targeted ads to better reach the specific audiences you’re narrowing in on. Be sure to also keep track of your ad performance to see which ads customers are responding to most.

Make sure you research what your competitors are doing, too. You’ll want to review their social media platforms to see how their customers are responding to their posts. Keep note of any unanswered questions or frustrations customers bring up. This can help you stand out by offering a distinct voice and option for prospective customers.

Beyond ads, you might consider a power dialer as a step up from cold calling to help you find customers interested in your offerings.

3. Send your prospects to a winning website

After sparking a prospect’s interest, you’ll want to send them to your website or dedicated landing page. It’s smart to include more information on your website about how your offering solves a problem the customer might be experiencing and why they should buy from you rather than a competitor.

Make sure you also show detailed photos of the product or service, provide an overview, and offer more in-depth content users can access if they want to learn more. Consider including interactive elements like videos or product demos, infographics, and user reviews. 

If prospects can buy the product or service outright, include a link to add it to their cart or a call to action explaining what they should do next. Try to put this all on one page to make it as easy as possible for the customer to take the next step. If the process feels too complicated, some prospects may drop out of the funnel.

Be sure to test your website or landing page on desktop and mobile. More customers shop directly from smartphones now, so you’ll want to ensure your website is optimized for both experiences.

4. Keep in contact

After the prospect buys your product or service, stay in touch with them by sending them a thank you email and adding them to your email newsletter list (make sure they can opt-out if they choose). This allows you to keep in touch if your company has sales, deals, or new product launches down the road. You might also send an email asking them to leave a review to encourage new prospects to purchase one of your products down the road.

You might also consider adding a sign-up form to your landing page, so a prospect can learn more about your offerings even if they don’t decide to make a purchase right away. In this case, you might want to reach out with promotional codes, one-time discounts, or other incentives to get them to buy from you.

5. Continue refining your process

Make sure to tighten up your sales process constantly to better fit your business goals. Review your data regularly to determine if you should adjust your ad strategy, or if you should expand or narrow your targeted ad field. Review your website or landing page metrics for more than just visitor counts — you can also view your click-through rates and see where users might stumble on your page. If you notice an issue, try launching a test version of the page to see if it performs better. 

Featured Image by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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