That’s according to Brian Solis, renowned public relations expert and digital thought leader. In a recent blog post, Solis explains why most viral marketing attempts fail, through analysis social scientist Dan Zarrella’s work on why ideas spread and the seven types of “sharing motives.”

A few key takeaways:

• Identify and pre-seed your message with appropriate key influencers
• Some of the top emotions that motivate sharing are: Personal, Relevant, Timely, and Humor
• Define the action you are trying to provoke
• The ability to share with one-click essential to spreading your content/message
• Videos are much easier to spread on Facebook compared to Twitter

It’s not a short read, but definitely great food for thought as you market your small business. Read it once, chew on it awhile, then read it again!

Guest Post – Jonathan Kay is the Ambassador of Buzz at Grasshopper, a provider of virtual phone systems. He is extremely passionate about helping / meeting new entrepreneurs and always excited to learn about their unique journey. Find Jonathan on Twitter @GrasshopperBuzz or via email at jkay(at)grasshopper.com.

Having now lived through over a year of my first recession, I have learned a lot. Mistakes and tough times always seem to lead to opportunities and takeaways. The last year or two really taught me the importance of the customer, and the emphasis that needs to be placed on them. With entrepreneurs and small businesses looking for any way possible to save money, “Customer Acquisition Cost” has become an increasingly important metric. It’s simple… the less money it costs you to acquire a customer, the larger the profit margin.

This leads me to a real passion of mine: Brand Loyalists.

A brand loyalist isn’t just a happy user of your product/service: they yell from the roof tops about you, helping to market and sell your product! With all the social media channels available now, there are more and more people telling you what they need, and asking for advice. Having an Army of Brand Champions out there provides a powerful and unbiased sale that is impossible to reproduce. More so, real brand loyalists will spend the time to give you constructive, uncensored feedback. This will only help make your product/service stronger, and increase customer satisfaction in the long run.

Ok. So now you know how important brand loyalists are; the harsh reality is they are difficult to achieve. And, a simple discount or promotion code just won’t cut it. I have been fortunate early in my career to work with a handful of really successful and genuine entrepreneurs. This firsthand experience has helped me develop a certain level of expertise in this area, and below are some helpful tips I have learned along the way:

1. Add Value First
When a customer engages your brand and purchases your product/service they don’t expect you to add value above and beyond what they paid for. This creates an opportunity to WOW your customer and really exceed their expectations. Small efforts make a difference: engage new customers on Twitter and thank them, start discussions about your product, and if you or a colleague is traveling why not reach out to a few local customers and take them out to dinner or drinks. By engaging your customer right away you will make a connection they will never forget.

2. Listen. Then Listen Some More
Have you ever tried flat out asking your customers what they want? What they need? Simple…yes, but trust me it works. Why not just pick up the phone and ask them? It is important to remember that your customers drive the direction of your business. At Grasshopper, all managers call 5 new customers ever week. We ask how the setup process went, what we could be doing better, what we are missing, and how we could help? Listening is a powerful tool. By making people feel actively involved (not through boring surveys) in shaping important features/practices, you will build incredible brand loyalty.

3. Make a Human Connection
It’s important to let your customers know that you are more than just a brand - you are actually real people too. Make an effort from to have less formal conversations. A great example of this is our co-founder David Hauser (@dh). You will find him doing anything from thanking customers to talking about his Iron Man training.

4. Promote Your Customers
People never forget when you make a connection, or open a door for them. Make an effort to be constantly reaching out to your customer base, learn about them and their businesses. The more you know about your customers, the more likely you will be able to set them up with other customers who might be able to help each other out. That is a memorable connection. Here at Grasshopper we have gone as far as to set up a formal program: Tell Us Your Story. This gives our entrepreneurs an opportunity to tell us what makes them unique, and how they are changing the world. Not only do we promote them to the media, but now we also have real stories and examples of entrepreneurs living their passion. Actively trying to help your customers businesses grow is a definite way to create a brand loyalist.

5. Build a Culture of Responsibility
You need to empower your employees to help your customers (and not just your support team). There is no reason everyone should not be concerned with how your customers feel about your product/service. Make an effort to always follow up after resolving a customer issue, this will make people feel heard, appreciated, and create a loyalist for life.

Guest blogger: Matt Friesen is the founder and CEO of Thirdi, a Vancouver Software Development and Internet Marketing company.

What do you do if you are selling something new and original: like a hoodie designed to look like a monster. Even if you captured 100% of the people looking for “Hoodies that make you look like a monster”, you likely aren’t going to have a substantial business. Search advertising can’t capture that intent. Display advertising is too easily ignored, and lacks the necessary credibility, to sell someone on a radically new idea. To make someone take the leap into buying something silly the best way is to have a personal, human recommendation.

Unique products require a human touch and a personal connection. Unique products must fit into communities or they will not be appreciated. Here are 3 questions we ask ourselves, at Thirdi, before starting to market a unique product:

1. What specific groups would enjoy this product?

Don’t cop out and say that your audience is ‘everyone’. Some groups will always be better suited to your product than others. Are you looking for kooky soccer moms or under-18 scenesters. Maybe your audience has an obscure profession, like cartographers or jugglers. You have to have a clear idea of the answer to this question before you can proceed.

2. Where do these groups congregate online?

Start doing Google searches for key terms related to your audience. Make lots of bookmarks using tools like Delicious or Faviki and keep them organized. You’ll also want to qualify these groups by their scale and influence somehow as well, to make sure you aren’t wasting time on communities of 20 people. Two easy ways to do this are to use the Google Toolbar to measure the a site’s pagerank or a service like Alexa.com to measure (rough) size. The details aren’t important, you just need to establish a set of priorities.

3. Who are the most important members of the group?

Every group has a leader. Spend a bit of time digging through each of these crowds and a clear leader will start to emerge. Usually, you can just look through 20 or 30 random posts and start to notice that one name keeps popping up over and over. These leaders will write 10X the post of average users, and command 50X the influence. If you can win them over, the rest of the group will take notice.

Finding these individuals may seem like a lot of work, especially since these efforts may only lead to a handful of immediate sales. What they do offer you is a great place to test your marketing messages. Start a conversation with these individuals and see if your message is resonating. If they like it, they’ll tell their friends and your product will start to catch on. If they don’t, you will have received free marketing feedback from your exact target consumer. Either way, you will have gained some valuable data and possibly a few helpful allies.

It’s a big weekend in Hollywood. The Academy Awards is a huge event that costs millions of dollars. So what is the value for the players involved? And better yet, how does this translate to your small business?

In just about any industry there are awards and recognition to be won. An Oscar isn’t just a shiny trophy that will sit on a mantle gathering dust. It commands respect for the winner, along with more opportunities and significantly higher pay. It implies a level of quality not found in the “everyday” actor. Not only that, but it provides that extra few minutes to make them a household name – after all, who could forget Adrien Brody’s first win (and unexpected kiss with Halle Berry!)


The same goes for your business. No matter what your specialty, it’s likely that there is an award out there that conveys your talent and reliability to potential customers. Awards are like testimonials, but much stronger since they are backed up by an objective third party.

Not only can awards provide incentive to your customers, but they also have an impact on your ability to hire great staff. As an example, since being included as one of the Best Companies to Work For in BC, we now receive more job applications, giving us a bigger pool for high-quality hiring. People want to be part of something successful.

Not sure where to start looking for award-winning possibilities? Try searching online with keywords including your industry and “awards”. You’ll likely be surprised at the opportunities out there!

Is the location of your small business important to your customers? If so, your online marketing efforts need to include optimization of your website for local search.

Not sure what local search is? A great example is Google Local. When you do a search for a local business on Google (i.e. “dog walker Seattle”), on the search results page you’ll see a list of local businesses beside a little map. They are businesses that have been submitted to Google Local who are relevant to your search.

Here are some great ways to optimize your site for local search:

1.    Submit to Local Search Engines
We already mentioned Google Local, but there are many more and some may be more popular in your area than others. Consider the following:

• Google Local
• Yahoo! Local
• Yelp
• Yellowpages.com
• Local.com

2.    Include Your Contact Information on Every Page
This is easier than it sounds. Just create a site-wide footer for your pages and include your address.
CityMax.com User Tip: Create your page footer by going to ‘Edit Site’ > ‘Page Footer’.

3.    Use Geo-Descriptive Keywords
When researching your keywords, make sure to see what people are searching locally, then use those keywords on your website. Make sure to include them in your title and description tags.

When you make a website that’s optimized for local search, it’s easier to get your business to the top of the search engines – simply based on your location! As a bonus suggestion, consider getting a localized domain name to compliment your existing one.

When a potential customer visits your small business website for the first time, there are several factors that can help them from along the sale conversion process… but one factor you won’t make the sale without is trust.

In an era of corporate scandal and betrayal, trust has quickly become a rare commodity. A recent international study showed that business leaders (CEOs) are considered less trustworthy than even government officials, and trailing them are the oft-maligned media outlets. The prevalence of new scams has consumers worried about pulling out their credit cards and purchasing online.

How do you convince your customer that you aren’t just there to make a quick buck?

Increase trust and reassure your customers with these 5 steps:

1. Let Them Know Who You Are
Create an “About Us” page that describes your story. A little bit of personality goes a long way - people like to buy from people! Add appropriate photos of yourself or your team, and your physical store if you have one. Here is a great example of a business that uses their “About Us” page to let consumers know they probably won’t be disappearing anytime soon.

2. Display Awards, Trade Association Badges and Security Certificates
If your business has garnered any recognition or if you are a member of any respected trade association, proudly show the emblems or logos on every page. Display third party security seals and use security certificates to lessen fears and increase conversions.

3. Testimonials
In the same way customers want to know who you are, they also want to know who is buying from you. Don’t be afraid of reaching out to happy customers who have sung your praises and asking for their permission to reproduce their comments (you can even offer a bonus). Some sites will even post pictures of their customers.

4. Risk-Free Trial
Build consumer confidence by offering a “no-risk” purchase. Research has shown that (risk) free offers increase sales – think of it as a security blanket. Invite new customers to “examine it, try it, use it for a full 30 days without risk”. If you are guaranteeing customer satisfaction scream it from the rooftops! This is a great asset in your unique selling proposition that you don’t want to hide.

5. Make Contact Easy
People don’t want to buy from someone who will disappear – you want potential customers firing questions your way, before and after the sale. Make sure your phone number and email address are prominently displayed on all marketing materials, as well as in your email signature. Have a “contact us” footer at the bottom of each page.

Remember, trustworthiness directly relates to your bottom line. This is why “mom and pop” stores often experience great success with their direct, straightforward approach. Start using these five easy tactics today to increase your trust and sales!

The one question that every small business website owner asks themselves at some point or another is: “How can I get more customers?” Surprisingly enough, it’s not as difficult as you would think!

Here are three secrets that the best marketing minds rely on:

1. Identify Your Strengths

It’s pretty much guaranteed that no matter what industry you’re in, you are going to have some competition and you are going to be compared against them. So what can you do to stay ahead of the game?

The key is to identify what it is about your business that should make a customer choose you over anyone else. Pick something that you are or want to be the best at, then make sure you keep it that way. That “thing” is your silver bullet – in marketing speak it’s called your Unique Selling Point or USP. For example, if you sell protective cases for cameras, your USP might be that your cases are indestructible.

2. Pinpoint Your Customers

One of the common mistakes that small business owners make is thinking that their products are perfect for everyone. No matter how great your products are, there will always be a subset of people that are your TRUE customers. These are the people that make up your perfect target market and are also the people that you should be developing your marketing messages around.

If you already have a customer base, take a closer look at them. Who are you selling to primarily? Who is making you the most money? Look at age, location, gender, lifestyle habits, education level, and more. From there you can start to create a clear picture of who you are selling to, and what is important to them.

In following with the protective camera case business, it’s likely that an ideal customer might have the following characteristics:

• Between the ages of 25 – 35
• College/University educated
• High amount of disposable income
• Athletic and adventurous (“adrenaline junkie”)

3. Target Your Message and Make It Matter

Once you know what makes you stand apart from the competition and who you are selling to, your marketing is much easier to figure out. When you craft your marketing messages around your USP and your ideal customers, you should end up with a campaign that really communicates the right message to the right people.

Let’s talk about those camera cases again.

John is a 29 year old male who loves mountain climbing, biking, and snowboarding. He’s broken three digital cameras in just over a year. He’s trying to find a way to stop wasting money on cameras, but he’s not convinced that there’s anything out there strong enough to withstand his lifestyle.

Knowing that John is your ideal customer, one way to connect with him might be through video. Take an action shot of the camera case being dropped on a trail ride, then being “accidentally” ridden over by the camera owner’s friends. Afterwards, show the unscathed camera – and maybe even some accidentally captured images of bike tires riding over it.

By figuring out what makes your business different and who you are selling to, you identify your own niche and create room for growth. As a side benefit, you may also be able to identify additional products that are sorely needed by your ideal customers – products that nobody else has recognized yet and that will give you the additional advantage of being first in the space.

When you’re starting an online business, it can take a while before people start finding your website. With paid search advertising – also known as Pay Per Click or PPC – you can place an ad for your website directly on a search engine page, right alongside the regular search listings, where people are already searching for a topic related to your business.

Google AdWords PPC Advertising

Here’s a brief overview of how paid search advertising typically works:

1. You bid on keywords that your customers would typically search for
2. Your ads are placed on the results page when people search for your keywords
3. You only pay when someone clicks your ad and visits your website

Paid search can be very effective, but it’s also easy to get carried away and spend too much on ads that just aren’t getting sales for you.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1.    Don’t invest money that you’re not willing to lose
PPC is like making a high-risk investment – you have to put money in before you can get anything back, and you can’t always predict what your returns will be.

2.    Determine a budget
On most paid search campaigns you can limit the amount of money you want to spend over a certain period of time. For example, if you only want to spend $10/day, the search engine will stop showing your ads once you’ve reached your limit.

3.    Research your keywords
The magic to any good paid search campaign is in the keywords. You need to know what people are (and aren’t) searching for when they’re trying to find a business like yours. Also, start with a small number of very specific keywords and then grow it from there. For example, “Toyota brake calipers” would be much better than just “car parts”.

4.    Watch your numbers
After you’ve set everything in motion, make sure to keep monitoring your campaigns for effectiveness. See how your keywords perform – do people really search for what you think they do? And, if they visit your site after searching those keywords, do they buy? How much are you spending? If you spend more, will it mean more sales?

5.    What works on one search engine may not work on another
Different types of people use different search engines, so what worked well on one might not work quite as effectively on another.

There is definitely a lot to consider when it comes to paid search advertising, but the pay-off can be well worth it.

Looking for more information about PPC? Check out this series of articles from PPC Hero – a great resource for paid search advertisers: Rookie or Veteran – PPC Basics Every Advertiser Should Know and Use

2009 is wrapping up, and what better occasion to take a fresh look at your online business! As we march into the New Year, it’s time to figure out what is and isn’t working. Here are five tips that should help you create a more profitable 2010:

1. Focus on Customer Service
No matter how fantastic your product, it’s not what your customer will be talking about if your service stinks. By building a great relationship with your customers, you keep them happy, loyal, and talking about you with their friends. Evaluate all of your points of contact, from emails, phone messages, web contact, and even how you interact face to face – then make sure you’re going above and beyond.

2. Ask Clients for Referrals
Now that you’ll be offering top notch customer service, encourage your customers to tell their friends about you. People are much more likely to trust a company recommended by friends and it’s as simple as adding a line to your email signature (ie. Happy with our products? Recommend us to a friend!).

Tip: With your CityMax.com small business website, you can add a “Recommend Website” page, which allows your visitors to send an email recommendation to their friends.

3. Learn to Delegate
Have too much on your plate? As a small business owner, it can be hard to let others do work for you, but learning to share your workload will help you accomplish a lot more. Consider what you do in a week and identify the things that don’t NEED to be done by you, then pass them on to others. If you don’t have staff, you may want to try outsourcing some of that extra work. For example, if you need content written for your website, consider using a service like Textbroker.

4. Ditch Broken Systems
Sometimes in business we set up processes that end up not being so successful… yet we keep on using them for years. Now is the time to make a move. Is your sales method not effective for closing deals? Is one of your products just not selling no matter what you do? Is your software constantly crashing? Out with the old and in with the new. Find something that works better – you’ll end up saving a lot of time and frustration.

5. Set Realistic Goals
If you’re not already setting goals, now is a great time to start. By setting goals, you not only have something to strive for, but you also have something to celebrate once it is accomplished. Make sure that any goal you set is realistic or you may end up just frustrating yourself.

These five resolutions should make a positive impact on your business, but don’t forget to take care of yourself! Work-life balance is just as important to your business’ health, so as a bonus resolution, make sure to also set personal time as a priority.

Whether you’re running a physical or online business, you probably spend a lot of time on the computer. A great way to cut business costs and manage your time effectively is by using free applications or software. We’ve compiled a few of our favorites – some will even help you make your own website design a bit fancier!

Mozy
Are you backing up your computer? You never know when something might happen – don’t let a hardware failure cost you your business! With Mozy, you can back up 2GB of data for free, and it works automatically. If you need more storage, you can upgrade to an unlimited account.

Skype
If you’re still using a landline and long distance phone calls are a regular thing for you, check out Skype. If both you and the person you’re calling use Skype, your calls are free.

Gimp
Want to edit images, without spending a fortune on image editing software? Gimp is very much like Adobe Photoshop, so you can use it for adding just a bit of text to an image or making something a little more advanced.

OpenOffice
Need to create documents and spreadsheets, but don’t want to spend on Microsoft Word? OpenOffice is a solid replacement and is compatible with Word – so those receiving your files will still be able to open them.

Evernote
If you like to keep track of ideas or things that you like, Evernote is a great tool. You can capture photos, web pages, voice memos, text notes, screenshots – pretty much whatever you think of – and then organize and keep track of it. Plus, there are smartphone apps that will sync with your online notes.

Dropbox
Working between multiple computers? Or, need to share files with different people? With Dropbox, you can sync files between different computers, so wherever you are you can access the file you need.

TweetDeck
If you’re still managing your account through Twitter, you might want to take a look at TweetDeck. By using multiple columns to display your twitter feed, mentions, and messages, TweetDeck makes it easy to see what’s new. You can also create “search” columns to watch for mentions of your product or company name.

Jing
Jing is a great tool for taking pictures or video of what’s on your computer screen. You can use it for demos, instructional videos, photo narration or whatever you like – then you can upload it to their video hosting service, Screencast.com, or use it elsewhere.

TranslateThis
If your customers are from many different countries, you can add the TranslateThis button to your web page. Your customer can simply click the button and your page content will automatically be translated to their language choice.

WebRSS
With WebRSS, you can use an RSS feed to display content from a blog or website on your own site.

Although we limited our list to ten, there are a lot of free applications out there. From money management to design, you can often get away without paying for expensive software, especially while your business is small and you don’t need to pay for a ton of users.