Gain Traction With Word-of-Mouth Advertising

by | Oct 24, 2016 | Blog, Marketing, Training

Word-of-mouth advertising aka referral marketing is one of the best ways to market your services and/or products. Like seriously…. Not only can it give you the highest return on investment (ROI) but it’s easy to get started – and a lot of times CHEAP to get started. Honestly, there’s really no better way to hear about a product than getting an honest opinion from a trusted peer.

We wanted to showcase an article one of our clients published recently about this type of marketing. >> Read here

Kathleen talks a lot about referral marketing and how it can help spread the word about whatever it is you want to share. In addition, she talks a little bit about Thunderclap – a pretty nifty tool to book the selling power of books. Give it a read! Then let us know what you think in the comments – Have you had any success with word-of-mouth advertising? Have you tried some of Kathleen’s tips and tricks?

5 Ways to Get People to Refer-A-Friend

by | Oct 12, 2016 | Blog, Marketing

It’s no secret, humans were born to be social creatures. We crave social connection as much as we did thousands of years ago when humans first starting roaming the earth. But… in order to become a part of the group, we need to know what to do in order to be respected by the group. Think about it like this… You feel like you should add an important snippet to a group conversation at work. Either your coworkers will love the idea or they will reject it – therefore embarrassing you in the long run. Is it worth the risk of ridicule to express your thoughts and ideas? Sometimes it is, sometimes… not so much.

This same dynamic rings true in referral marketing. Is it worth it for a customer to refer your company to one of their friends? Below are five ways you can get people to refer your business.

  1. Be Unique & Reliable (even if you can’t be unique)

    Be unique. Do something that set’s you apart from the rest of the players within your industry. Even if you can’t provide a unique product, you can provide a unique customer experience. Set standards and abide by those standards and expectations each and every time you sell a product or talk to a customer. People are going to want to talk about outstanding experiences they have with companies.

  2. Build and keep relationships with industry partners

    If you’re a wedding planner, you’ve probably needed a florist, a DJ, and even a caterer at some point. Build and keep those lasting relationships. These related businesses are in contact with your targeted audience on a daily basis and are a perfect resource for referrals.

  3. Get out there. Get connected and be visible.

    Getting involved in the community is a great way to get referral business. Sponsoring a sports team or an event that helps homeless animals is a great way to get your company name out there and let people know you care about the community you do business in.

  4. Refer to Get Referred

    Going back to #2 and those strong related business relationships. Refer those companies to other people and in return, they will refer business to you. But don’t just refer anyone. Make sure you are only referring other business that you know provide quality and honest work. You don’t want bad referrals to come back to bite you in the butt after all…

  5. Don’t be afraid to ask. (But make sure to give something of value in return)

    A lot of the time, asking for what you want really works. Are you selling some kind of software that helps people to streamline their finances? Do you get a lot of questions about specific cases? Before answering, have your customers post a public review of your business in exchange for a little bit of “free” consulting advice.

There’s a lot more when it comes to getting referrals. We actually recommend reading a great article by Infusionsoft that talks a lot more about referrals and the psychology behind them.

But hey… before we go… Did you know that we offer a referral program here at STF? We offer $50 for every single friend (or foe) that signs up with any of our service programs. (*Also* Offering referral bonuses is just another great way to get people to “refer-a-friend” ;-p)

Simplero vs Infusionsoft – The Major Differences

by | Sep 29, 2016 | Blog, Entrepreneur, Infusionsoft

Hey there fellow entrepreneurs! We recently moved one of our clients from Infusionsoft to Simplero and wanted to give a big shout out to the product. While we still love, Love, LOVE, recommend, and use Infusionsoft…. we have to say we are very impressed with Simplero. The application is built upon the basis of being “simple” compared to a lot of similar products on the market. We’ve found it to be a great solution for those who are not quite ready for all that Infusionsoft has to offer. So let’s jump right into it – here are 10 basic features of Simplero we found to be pretty freakin’ neat.

  1. Each product also has a “freebie” order form. This is great for testing or for giving this as comp to clients without requiring a credit card.
  2. You can add a gift email and message on an order form – and it can be purchased for another person.
  3. You can create an order form that has a donation amount, which means the customer has the ability to add a custom amount to pay. Helpful for fundraising and collecting odd amounts.
  4. The unsubscribe page allows the customer and prospect to see what lists they are on and opt-out of the lists they want while staying on others they are more interested in such as; product updates on something they purchased from you.
  5. Terms and Service on order forms.
  6. Mobile responsive order forms
  7. You can broadcast to customers in their timezone.
  8. Mobile responsive emails
  9. No limit on account users!!
  10. Month to month subscription plans. No lengthy yearly subscriptions!

*Keep in mind. Infusionsoft does offer many of these features as well… but you do have to purchase additional integrations to make them available.

But hey! We can’t give you all of the good without letting you know some of the bad… here are a couple of features that Simplero does NOT have:

  1. No phone support. It’s all ticket based (we’ve had good luck with quick response times though!)
  2. No cart page or view cart page so that customers can add multiple products to their cart /order form.
  3. Does not include the advanced automation tools found in Infusionsoft Campaign Builder.
  4. Not as many integrations and plugins available.
  5. Not a full CRM
  6. Not as many email marketing features

All in all, it’s a pretty sweet product. If you’re interested in learning more about Simplero and how it could help your business, shoot us a note.

5 Sales Promotion Ideas That Small Businesses Can Execute

by | Sep 20, 2016 | Blog, Infusionsoft, Marketing

We were over at Infusionsoft’s blog the other day catching up on all the wonderful things they post over there when we came across this post, 5 Sales Promotion Ideas That Small Businesses Can Execute. They talk a lot about actual promotions you can do, duh, but what we liked most about the post was the information they shared about the details. Yah, you could throw a flash sale or offer a discount, but if you miss out on important details- it could end up killing your business instead of growing it.

The first part of the article talks about the execution. Before you announce any kind of promotion, it’s important to consider the who, what, why, where, when… you get the point. What kind of promotion do you want to offer? What is the goal of the promotion? Why are you offering this promotion? Understanding the reasoning behind the sale/promotion will help you decide what the best course of action your business needs to take to prepare and execute the sale/promotion.

They then go on to list a number of promotion types including flash sales, Buy One Get One Free (BOGO), coupons and/or discounts, tripwires, and recurring sales. Each point provides information on what each type of sale is, what type of customer it could target the most, and even includes several points on how to execute the sale to your own business needs.

All in all, we thought it was a darn good blog article and thought we should share with all our followers. It’s great information, and if you decide to implement some of these ideas to your own business, please let us know how it worked for you in the comments!

Read the full Infusionsoft blog article here.

Why You Need to Delegate to Succeed in Business

by | Sep 14, 2016 | Blog, Delegating, Entrepreneur

As a small business owner, do you ever think you yourself, “I’m doing way too many things myself”? Guess what, most small business owners are in this category. They’re doing way too many things that they could, and should, be delegating to someone else to take care of for them. If you feel like you’re overloaded in work and don’t have the time to focus on more important things (like growing your business), ask yourself these four questions:

  1. What am I doing that someone else could do better? (social media graphics, blog posts, admin tasks?)
  2. What are tasks that you could easily give others to do? (posting on social media, updating your website, filling out weekly reports?)
  3. What are tasks that you don’t necessarily like completing? (bookkeeping, legal stuff, faxing?)
  4. What kind of budget do you have to spend on extra help?

Chances are… you’ve got about twenty things on your list of tasks that could easily be delegated to a virtual assistant or someone else on your team suited for the role at hand. There’s no reason for the owner of a company to take the time to send a fax or file folders when they could be focusing on revenue generating activities such as meeting with prospective clients and joining planning sessions for new products and services. Let’s face it, a lot of things just aren’t in your job description any more. Doing work that takes away from accomplishing the tasks that you should be doing will distract you from getting anywhere with growing your business.

Delegating tasks is a great way for you to build teamwork and trust with your team. Giving your employees work to do tells them that you trust them to get the job done. Splitting up big group projects and giving tasks to different individuals helps your employees understand the role they play within your company and encourages open communication and trust between team members. In addition, it stimulates creativity and initiative within the team to get things done together.

Don’t have a team to help you get stuff done? Hire a virtual assistant! Most of the time, these individuals can take care of simple tasks and even help to manage the more sophisticated parts of your business (with a little training… you know, as a manager, it is your job to develop people after all ;-P). Virtual assistants can be a highly valuable asset due to their cost effective nature and the specialized services that they offer. You could find someone to take care of simple administrative tasks, or hire a virtual assistant to literally manage your whole company online for you.

When you invest in extra help to take care of the more mundane, time consuming tasks, you give yourself the opportunity to get back to what you do best: bring in new clients, keep current customers happy, and creating innovative new products and services to help your business flourish. Get back to focusing on the aspects of your business that only YOU can do, and let someone else take control on managing the rest. In addition, handing off a load of tasks will lower your stress level and get you back on the track to a healthy work/life balance.

Overall, delegating work will always benefit your team, your organization, and yourself. If you’re not delegating, it’s never too late to start.

9 Reasons Why You Should Hire A Virtual Assistant

by | Sep 7, 2016 | Blog, Delegating, Entrepreneur

There are a lot of reasons why small business owners and entrepreneurs should hire a virtual assistant. One of the biggest reasons is to help you pull yourself out of the giant pool of work you seem to be drowning in. Sound familiar?

Here are just nine reasons why you should consider hiring on a virtual assistant to help you get things taken care of.

  1. You’re Letting Core Tasks Slip Through The Cracks
    Ever feel like you’re so overwhelmed with things to do that important tasks start to fall through the cracks? Don’t worry, we’ve ALL been there. If you’re starting to let the important stuff get behind, it’s time to hire some help.
  2. You’re Not The Best At Everything – Others Could Do It Better
    Ever heard the phrase “Jack of all trades, Master of none”? Is this what you’re currently considering yourself as a busy entrepreneur or business owner trying to handle everything yourself? Guess what, it’s time for a reality check. In most cases, there’s something way better suited for the job than you. Don’t be afraid to give up a little power and let the professionals take care of it. NO MORE STICK FIGURE GRAPHICS OK!
  3. Your Business Is Growing And Employees Are Expensive
    Office overhead can get super expensive… and so are full time employees. The positive thing about hiring a virtual assistant? No overhead costs since they work from their own space and no additional employee costs since they are strictly contract workers.
  4. You’re Absolutely SICK Of Repetitive Tasks
    I don’t know about you… but I get sick of repetitive tasks I have to do on a daily basis. TALK ABOUT BOOOOORING! Want to gain that time back so you can spend it on more important things? Get a VA to do it for you.
  5. You’re Sick Of Trying To Find Work To Keep Your Employees Busy During Downtimes
    Growing a small business usually keeps employees pretty busy, but what do you do about those pesky downtimes that always seem to show up? It can be hard trying to find productive ways to keep your employees busy and making you money. With a VA, you can assign them a couple of hours of work and bam, that’s it. You can reach out to them again when you’ve got more to do… No worrying about keeping them busy during a typical work day.
  6. My Customer Service Sucks Because I Am Too Busy To Respond
    One of the biggest challenges of growing a business is keeping up with GOOD customer service and with all the ways customers can contact you these days (social media, email, phone, etc) it’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. Don’t get caught up in administration… Let a virtual assistant handle your business reputation and keep customers happy.
  7. Ready To Take Back A Health Work/Life Balance
    Often time’s clients tell us their biggest pet peeve at the moment is not having enough time to enjoy their own lives outside of work. They’re so bogged down with things they need to get done they literally don’t have any time left over for themselves. Take back your work/life balance by pushing off work on a VA so you can get back to being YOU.
  8. You’re Overwhelmed Trying To Keep Up With Schedules/Meetings/Calls/Emails
    It’s Monday morning and you’re sitting there looking at your calendar like, “How am I going to keep up with all these meetings, calls, emails this week?!?!?” Guess what, virtual assistants can handle your scheduling just like any personal assistant. Let them take care of your inbox, manage your phone calls, and set up your meeting schedule (making sure to keep that life/work balance we talked about in #7).
  9. Your Work Is No Longer Making You Happy
    Are you so stressed out about your job or business that you’re no longer enjoying it? Or you’ve completely forgotten why you got into it in the first place? A lot of that stems from being way too bogged down with work and business responsibilities. Knock that crap off and get back to doing what you love by hiring a virtual assistant to deal with all that nasty stress and anxiety. Focus on the tasks you love doing the most and delegate the rest.

Any of this sound like you? If so, you should totally give us a call. No lies, we can really take the stress out of building a business and help you get back to the things that matter most – growing and running your business efficiently.