Communication & Technology – A must for an SME trader

Do you know that almost everyone looks up the internet in the following situations?

• Making a purchase decision
• Start a new business
• Look for a new supplier
• Business joint ventures
• Sourcing raw material
• Sourcing packaging material
• New buyers
• Comparison of products
• Product reviews
• The list goes on!

Since internet is easily accessible and more and more business is taking place online, it has become a necessity rather than an added advantage to make an online presence for your business.

But how easy or difficult is it to get online? It takes a lot of effort in making a neat website, update the content, put the right kind of images and keep the website updated all the time. Plus, because of the plethora of websites, you need to invest in SEO, SEM, social media marketing, etc.

Usually, since traders and other business people do not have the expertise to handle all of it, they go for one of the following two options:

1. Outsource the entire activity (which comes at a high price)
2. Do it in-house to save on cost (but the outcome is quite bad because of lack of knowledge and expertise)

This is a fix that many traders face. Add to this the fact that traders have not one, or two, or three products but the SKUs run in multiples of tens or hundreds. So it’s even more difficult to manage the operations.

Is there a way to avoid these problems and still get to the ultimate objective of having an online presence?

The answer is a product from bizporto.com, the bizTrader. bizTrader is a specifically designed product for SME traders that can not only manage inventory but upload all the product information online and maintain it, get you SEO and SEM traction, bring you on Google, Yahoo!, bing and other search engines and also maintain your online presence without you having to do anything. You can purchase the product at a very economical price for 12 months and stay relieved about your online marketing.

You need not put in any effort in managing it, all you have to do is prepare yourself to handle the business that will flow in after you begin using bizTrader.

bizTrader will change the way you do business. It will expand your market presence, increase your sales, give you a well defined space in the online market and benefit your business overall.

What are you waiting for?

Why you need to be on Google?

It’s true. Google can make or break your business. It’s safe to say that Google can be a sturdy back bone to your business and help you achieve success that you could not have imagined with the traditional marketing efforts.

Still not convinced why your small business needs to be on Google? The answer to that is simple and complicated. It is simple because Google is our answer to every question. Did you know that 62% of searchers never go on to the second page of the results and 90% do not go after page 3? This also means that one has to be on the first page of Google search results to be really able to make a possible mark into the target audience’s mind.

Here are a few reasons why your business needs to be in Google‘s good books:

1. Huge market

There are billions of searches happening on Google every day. Some of these searches might be pertaining to your business and if the search leads to your company website, you might get a small share of the big pie.

1. Local searches

If your target audience is city specific, then Google is even more effective and affordable. In case you are planning to advertise on Google for reaching out to potential customers in a specific city only, you might have to spend less and get a high ROI.

2. It’s complicated!

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea to understand Google and make it work for them. If you can do it for your business first, you will be beating a lot of competition even before they think of getting there. Hence, start now and understand how you can get there. An easier and effective way of doing so is to enlist your business on a B2B product search engine such as bizporto.com.

Bizporto.com spends a lot of time and effort in making the website very search engine friendly. Once you are listed there, you will be on Google’s first page result when a potential buyer is searching for your category of products.

3. New business

It is estimated that for every 10 online searches, 7 searches happen on Google. Thus, if those 7 people cannot reach you website when looking for your products or services, you are allowing potential customers to go to your competitors. Don’t you think you should do something about it?

4. It’s worth it!

It might seem cumbersome and tedious and too high a cost, but investing time and money on Google pays off. Imagine being the top search result for your business on Google. Business will go exponentially and all the efforts will then seem worth it.

Simple Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

You have a small business and limited resources to market. Is that a problem? Absolutely not! Here are a few tips on how you can best utilize your time, effort and money on marketing your business:

• Add a personal touch: Be it a Facebook post or an email message, add a personal touch to it. Make your brand more human by giving its voice a touch of emotions and sentiments. Whatever you write or send out, even the content on your website, should have a personal touch and a human tone because It helps in connecting with your target audience faster!

• Use your existing network: Charity begins at home and so does marketing. Your family, friends, associates are the first target audience that you have to reach out to. Their support will help you get further. It’s like a ripple effect. If your network promotes you on their social network or circle of friends. Their network promotes it among their network. That’s how the word gets out! But the most important in this is how you sell your business idea to your own friends and family and make them believe in you and your product.

• Let the picture talk: A picture speaks a thousand words! It has been concluded that images can potentially attract more attention, capture mind share and engage people. Hence, use images more than text on Facebook, websites and elsewhere. It allows you to build a better positioning of the brand. Even product images should be good quality so that the user experience on your website and other online portals is enhanced.

• Contests: Small contests and giveaway are a great way to engage existing and potentials customers. Keep aside a monthly budget based on your will and utilize that money for gifts and giveaways. Such activities go a long way in increasing your number of loyal customers. And if they like what they win, they will come back to you and buy the product!

• Get together: If other similar players in your industry are also small and mid-sized, it would be a great idea to join hands for joint promotion. A combined marketing activity is a great way to increase awareness about the product segment and reduces cost of marketing. You can approach media for PR stories on all the brands together. It’s a win-win situation for all.

• Network: Networking helps increase your personal brand and generate credibility in the market. You are the brand ambassador for your product by default hence people judge your product and brand based on your personality. Hence, meet as many people as possible and create a good impression on them to be able to generate a good impression for your brand.

Use blogging to build your brand!

Did you know that there are specialized bloggers who write about particular subjects and are great influencers when it comes to guiding people through their purchase decisions? For example, there are tech bloggers who review every new gadget and publish it on their blogs. Those looking out to buy a new gadget, look up their blog and decide which one to choose. If these bloggers write a positive feedback on the product, the brand will be benefitted manifold.

Blogs have a far greater reach when it comes to search engine results. A blend of SEO techniques and relevant content can do wonders for a brand.

Consider the following ways in which brands can get themselves to be talked about by bloggers.

1.      Blogging Contests

A brand can announce a blogging contest and get bloggers to generate content in the online space for itself. The blogging contest can be given a well-defined theme, like the USP of the brand, etc. When a good prize is attached to the contest, bloggers would automatically be willing to participate and write about the brand in their blog.

For eg, recently, Dove held a Real Beauty blogging contest where in the bloggers were asked to write about what real beauty meant to them. It had huge cash prize attached to it. It created a lot of hype around the brand. These contests can be announced through various blogging directories or social networks for bloggers.

2.     Blogger Meets

A brand can announce a blogger meet where in the city based bloggers can come together and experience the brand first hand. This can include seeing the product, using it and learning about it. The bloggers can then go back and blog about their experience. This creates a valuable user generated content for the brand.

3.     Company’s Blogs

A brand can have its own blog that can not only talk about the brand itself but about other things related to it. For example, a cosmetics brand can write about various beauty problems, prevention and precaution, etc. Along with it, it can write about the brand products, their usage and how it can help solve those beauty problems.

4.     Celebrity Blogs

These days a lot of celebrities maintain their blogs. If a brand can get a celebrity to publish a post about its products and the brand experience, it will immediately generate a lot of publicity for the brand. It will be like having a celebrity endorsing the brand in the online space. Celebrity blogs are closely monitored and thus have high readership.

5.      Micro Blogging

Micro blogging platforms like Twitter can also help in creating a viral or an instant publicity for the brand. There can be contests especially for those using Twitter. With the use of hash tags and the brand’s Twitter handle, consumers can post a lot of content about the brand that can be read by their followers. This is a great way of engaging consumers as tweeting requires very less time. However, the shelf life of a tweet is very short.

Negative Publicity – How to deal with it?

The impact of negative publicity is much more than that of positive publicity. A negative word against your brand’s product or quality can hurt – the marketers, their marketing plans and even the sales to a large extent. Marketers must understand that nobody generates negative publicity for them but themselves. Customer experience can make or break them. Brands can handle negative publicity for themselves in the following ways:

1. Be nice to your customers

This is first and the foremost way of avoiding negative word against yourself. Be nice to your customers, take care of their needs and serve them the best you can. Nothing flatters customers more than the service provider/seller treating them with dignity and respect. Make sure your front desk staff or salesmen are well groomed and well equipped to give your customers an experience they would find hard to forget. In certain Indian restaurants, you will find the owner himself serving the customers along with the crew, especially during rush hours. This only shows that the owner is concerned about the guests and not just leaving it to the waiters to handle them. Even if the food is not appealing to the taste buds of the guest, they would think twice before saying anything negative about the restaurant.

2. Don’t fake it

A lot of companies themselves write positive testimonials and good comments about their brand on review websites, blogs, feedback columns on the company’s website, etc. One can usually make out what is genuine and what is not if there is an only positive review to be found. Another way of doing it is paid advertorials which may not be as appealing either. Try to avoid that, instead wait for genuine feedback from clients which are believable and the exact expression of their experience with your brand.

3. Accept criticism positively

When you hear a negative word about your brand doing rounds, analyze what is triggering the bad word. The criticism should be taken positively and the changes be implemented based on the criticism. This will only make you realize what your weak areas are and where the competitors are scoring over you.

4. Show that customer’s feedback matters

When you hear negative review of your brand, try to ascertain what will make the pain areas go away. Take the feedback seriously, acknowledge the negative word and work on improving the brand. When the customers know that you have taken serious efforts to work on their feedback, they will only respect you more. For eg, when Cadbury got in trouble because of the worms and everyone started talking about how unsafe it was to give the chocolates to the kids or anyone else, they launched a campaign which clearly stated about the packaging and safety measures that Cadbury had implemented post the crisis.

5. Improve your SEO

The negative reviews, blogs and comments can help you find out what are the key words associated with your brand in terms of negative publicity. These can help you do a better keyword research for online ads, response strategy and website content.

6. Future strategy

A negative review of your brand can help you make a more profound marketing strategy and product innovation strategy for the future. You can learn from the mistake and come back much stronger and better. Usually, brands are advised to go for a small test marketing of the new products to avoid mass negative feedback, if any.

What is PR and how can it help you?

Public Relations or PR is all about building a positive brand recall. The benefits of PR can be seen only in the long run and one needs to be consistent with the PR efforts to be able to reap its benefits. Over a period of time, PR helps a business in the following way:

1. Increase the credibility of the brand, business service/product and the entrepreneurs behind it.
2. Increase the brand exposure and build the brand name in the chosen target market.

A big benefit of media PR is that it is free of cost. Hence, if you can utilize this medium properly, it can give you long term brand credibility without costing you anything. Advertisements come and go but PR stories are archived and remain forever.
So how do you initiate PR for your brand?

1. Understand how media works
A newspaper, magazine or a TV show wants to present content that is worth the time for their readers. Any story which is fresh, newsworthy and interesting has a good chance of getting published. Hence, give the media something that their readers what like to read and not what you would like them to read. Is your product / service / brand doing something that has not been done before? Is it a new trend that hasn’t been spoken about? Is it something that is relevant to the media you are speaking to? If yes, you stand a good chance to get published.

2. What is your target audience reading?
This question is important for you to decide on your PR strategy. Is your target final consumers or trade associates? If you want to reach out to those in your industry, look at trade media, financial papers, and business magazines. If you want to reach out to the final consumers, explore opportunities with popular national dailies, magazines, etc. If you want to reach out to people in a specific geographic location, look at local newspaper and regional media.

3. Story ideas
You cannot possibly go to a journalist and say, “here is the information about my business/product/service. Write about it!” You have to give them a story angle that they would like to write about. May be an industry trend, or how it is helping the people, how it is a breakthrough in a certain way, what it aims to achieve, etc.

4. The Pitch
This is the most important part of any PR activity. A journalist is bombarded with emails and phones every day. How do you ensure that he/she notices your pitch? The answer is to think like a journalist. Give them crisp information which is to-the-point and simple to understand. Keep it as minimal as possible with an eye catching subject line.

5. Follow Up
As mentioned before, a journalist receives tons of emails and phone calls in a day. They might not remember to call you back even if they agree that they will. Thus, it’s a good practice to keep in touch with the journalist and follow up on the pitch, but only if they show interest in your story idea.

6. Don’t pester the journalists
Do not chase the journalists. Respect their time and don’t waste it. Even when they show some interest in your story idea, be very precise and cooperate with them through the shaping up of the story.

LinkedIn for MSMEs

Is every social media network for your startup? Every small (and big) company can be found on Twitter and Facebook. While this could be a must-do for most companies today, little do they have clarity on how is it helping them and what objectives they are trying to fulfill by exploring social media networks.
A big company which has an established brand name might use Facebook and Twitter as a two-way communication channel with customers. Most companies can be reached through these networks by customers with complaints , suggestions and other messages. However, a startup or a small business may not be known by consumers and the utility of these networks may not be very high for them. In such a scenario, a professional social network like Linked In is a great place for entrepreneurs, traders, dealers and even other small business owners to learn about how to grow business, managerial aspects of business, various tools available for business operations and connect with others to build business partnerships, etc.
Linked In, if utilized in the right way, can prove to be very helpful for any small business owner. Here are a few insights about this wonderful social network exclusively for professionals:

1. Great with Search Engines: Most LinkedIn profiles turn up on the first page of Google when looking for keywords in your profile or your name. This is a good way to increase your visibility on the internet.

2. Linked In Company Pages: They are a great way to showcase your company’s offering, brand, product details, services offered, key specialties and what not! Thus, once a user reaches your Linked In, he can access complete company information in a neat and clean, standardized Linked In format. You can even upload images and give an enhanced user experience to the viewer.

3. Search for people you cannot otherwise find: Let’s say you need a contact person in a newspaper or a magazine or a big company or a smaller company that operates in the IT/ITeS sector or any other sector. All you need to do is search with the specified criteria on Linked In and you have the profiles of people based on their geographic location, employer, sector, etc. You can even see if they are connected to someone you are already connected with. You can ask your common connection to introduce you to a certain person over Linked in. All this within minutes and you know have the contact details of someone you did not know a while ago!

4. Ask for recommendations: You are starting a new business and nobody knows you in the industry. But your previous work experience counts a lot in adding to your credibility. You can ask your ex-colleagues, ex-box, college professors, ex-business partners or even your existing and past clients to give you a recommendation on Linked In. This recommendation can be a long paragraph about your work qualities, your attitude, your strengths, etc. This adds a lot of weight to your Linked In profile.

5. Display your past and present: All your awards and certificates, trainings and internships, work-ex and educational background can be displayed clearly on Linked In. This means that anybody who you want to business with can have a look at your professional profile and gain trust in your abilities even before meeting you in person.

6. Linked In Groups: Join relevant groups on Linked In for discussions on topics that interest you or to learn about something that you wish to. You can even ask specific questions or give answers to the ones that other post. This will increase your network and knowledge at the same time.

So what are you waiting for? A free Linked In account gives you many benefits and a paid one can be even more helpful as it has many options that can be utilized for the benefit of a small business. It’s really a small price to pay for the numerous features it provides.

It’s a good idea to provide a link to your Linked In profile in your email signature. But make sure your profile is regularly updated and is complete.

Twitter for MSMEs

Is Twitter for you? Well the answer does not depend on whether you are a big company or small but it depends on what is your objective to be on Twitter? If the objective is to increase sales through Twitter, you might be disappointed in the short run. But if the objective is to build a brand name over a period of time, Twitter is the place for you! Here’s how you can use Twitter for your small business:

1. Use and follow Hash tags
The best part about Twitter is the hash tags – the words which are used with ‘#’. For example, you are looking for ‘internships’ in ‘Mumbai’ in ‘marketing’. In such a case you can search for #internship #Mumbai #marketing together and you will see relevant search results. Similarly, for businesses, if you are looking for new employees in Mumbai for Sales, you can post a tweet with the hash tags: #job #Mumbai #sales together.

2. Follow the influencers
Find out who are the influencers for your industry or your business type on Twitter. For example, if your company works in the auto mobile domain, search for people whose opinions are sought after and valued in the auto mobile sector. Even following journalists who cover stories on your sector will help you in the long run as you will be aware of what kind of stories they are filing, latest trends in the industry, etc. You can even follow research organizations who conduct research in your domain. That will help you in keeping a tab on the latest industry numbers.

3. Have conversations
Just following influencers and other will not help but having conversations with them around the subject will be beneficial. This will bring you in their notice and they might endorse your views and points that you are discussing with them.
Even when you tweet something and that gets a reaction from someone on Twitter, respond to them with appropriate answer. This will help you gain credibility over a period of time and also gain you some followers.

4. Focus on your area of interest and expertise
Don’t go haywire with your content on Twitter. Focus on your area of interest and tweet around the same topic so that people can follow you for updates on a particular subject. Overtime, they will trust you as a reliable source of information on all things related to that subject. Plus, you will gain a targeted set of followers audience that would be interested in what you have to say.
Start tweeting! You can begin by sharing this article on Twitter!

How to Increase Sales & Profit?

There are certain initiatives that you can take to directly generate sales and stretch your profits. These initiatives (which may be social in nature) need to be strategic moves so that they can be purely used as a marketing tool and the business can make the best use of them. Consider the following ways in which you can, as you grow along, maximize returns:

1. Socially Responsible Investment Portfolios
Due to the increase in preference for Socially Responsible Investment portfolios, more and more investors are willing to give money to ‘social entrepreneurs’. In fact, there are certain venture capitalists that now have a separate fund for energy efficient projects. Thus, having a social outlook while planning a business can open up more capital avenues for the company.

2. Increase Brand Loyalty Of Consumers Through CSR
More and more consumers want to buy from brands that are socially responsible. Thus, when a brand associates with a CSR activity, it develops an affinity towards itself among the potential consumers. This builds a brand loyalty among the consumers as they like to associate themselves with a brand that is sensitive to the society. In such a scenario, they do not mind making an extra effort to buy the brand’s products or even to pay a slightly premium price for the same. Thus, brands that have CSR plans are easier to sell and market.

3. Reduce Cost By Going Local
Cut down on unnecessary cost by switching over to local B2B suppliers. This way you save on time, transportation cost, inter-state taxes, etc. It would also mean that the products are supplied smoothly and without any hassle. It also gives ease of operation, liberal credit terms and higher quality assurance since you can check the credibility of the supplier by yourself.

4. Retain Employees
Be sensitive to employee needs and take extra care of your employees so that there is a very low attrition rate. Employees choose to stay with companies that are honest and consider individual employee needs in consideration while making bigger corporate decisions. This results in employees that work for very many years with the organization and understand the organizational practices, processes and philosophy well. This also results in employees that know how to deal with customers; they often build relationships with customers and that drives the sales a lot of times.
This also implies lesser resources spent in employee hiring, training, etc. These costs saved add up to the profit of the company. Also, it means greater employee loyalty towards work and the company.

5. Gain an Edge Over Competitors
We are living in a time of price war where every competitor is willing to offer a similar product or service with matching quality at the same price. Then how do you differentiate from the competitors? Companies that have a social and sensitive side tend to have an edge over competitors in many ways. First of all, they are favored by the customers when it comes to buying. They are also a preferred choice by the government as they support the government’s social development policy. The government might give these companies a tax exemption, grants, access to other essential resources, etc. These companies also get noticed by investors who wish to invest in socially responsible companies that use clean technology, work in the energy efficiency sector or are working towards achieving a greater social benefit.

Emotional Marketing

You would have never really given it a thought, but emotions play a great role in helping you sell your product. Just as emotions drive relationships between two people, they can drive your relationship with your customers too. It’s all about striking the right chord with them through your brand communication.

Consider the following points to understand this better:

1.      Competitors try to sell, you should try to connect

While your competitors are advertising about how good they are, you should strategize on telling your target audience how they can identify with your product. Connect with them in such a way that they start believing that your brand understands them. Consider Cadbury Celebrations. It provides a ‘sweet solution’ to what one can gift their sisters on Raksha Bandhan. The target audience is reminded of how playful the relationship is between a brother and a sister and how Cadbury Celebrations is just the perfect way to express how special the bond between them is.

2.      Be your customer’s friend

You should make your brand such that the target audience considers it as a friend, a confidante. Remember how Johnson’s & Johnson’s baby products are advertised? It’s like one mom is telling the other how she can be sure of the baby’s personal care with the brand’s products. The ads are so beautiful and touching to look at that one can easily connect with them and believe what’s being told.

3.      A place in heart is more valuable than mind space

There are no two opinions about this one. You would obviously remember what has touched you rather what has been told to you. Think of the Raymond’s ads. The ads have always been centered around relationships that touch your heart – student & principal, father & son, husband & wife, etc. All the ads are very well made and have been successful in creating a place in your heart. It does make the target audience feel like a ‘complete man’.

4.      Know what the customer is thinking

Today you have the option of connecting with the target audience through social media. Your communication though your social media platforms should largely center around the brand, but also make it a point to talk about the issues that strike an emotional chord. Do something special on Mother’s Day, organize a small activity on National Festivals or even on religious occasions like Holi & Diwali. You see how Coca Cola launched a campaign on Diwali – Do Diye Aur Jalao – It only tries to identify with the youth and build a connect with them. It is a classic example of emotional marketing.

5.      Customers will pay attention to what’s interesting, they will buy what fills their emotional void

Customers may like the brand communication of an insurance provider but will never forget the LIC ad where the mom marries off the daughter only because of the money received from LIC after her husband’s death. It gives a feeling of having someone to count on, to depend on. It fills the probable void in their minds.