Can Better Packaging Improve Sales for Small Business?

Can better packaging improve sales for small business
Next time you go to the mall pay close attention to the bags people are carrying. You will find many sizes and styles. You will find some bags that are just so good that you don’t care what’s inside you will want to go to the store just to get the bag. Do you form an opinion about the content of the package or the business providing the bag based on its appearance?

Such is the power of packaging. Some businesses, especially luxury retailers, pay as much attention to the packing as they do to the products they sell. After all, customers form opinion about the business based on their first impression of the package.

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Smart Marketing Solutions For Small Business

When it comes to promoting your small business, every cent used for marketing really counts. You’ll need to create a presence for yourself in your community as well as cyberspace. That’s where a great digital printing company comes in. Without their help, you might as well hang up your hat.

With thousands of businesses being created daily, it’s hard to set yours apart from the crowd. Without the right tools, no one will know who you are. You’re going to need to create materials that get the word out about your business and the products and services that you offer.

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Small Businesses Benefit from Local SEO

Small businesses can benefit from local SEO
Making an impact on the World Wide Web can be daunting for small businesses. The initial instinct is often to appeal to the largest audience possible online. However, when your brick and mortar business is located in a provincial town, small businesses can benefit better from local SEO than an all-encompassing search strategy. Optimising local search listings can help small businesses increase their online presence with limited budget.
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Walking Billboards!! Benefits of Placing Company Logo on Clothes

Walking Billboard - benefits of placing company logo on clothes
Some people may not agree, but billboards are still relevant in this age of digital advertising. They offer great visibility to businesses in a very cost-effective way. For one thing, they are always there. People do not have to hunt for them. When designed right, they can catch people’s eyes and make lasting impression on their minds.
Wouldn’t it be even more effective if you could take those billboards and make them mobile so that they can be put in front of the people in multiple places? This is exactly putting the company logo and other brand building advertisements on the clothes people wear can do. This is similar to putting Facebook’s “Sponsored Stories” in people’s news page, except the story moves around and gives exposure in front of hundreds of people.
Businesses can incorporate the promotional logo clothing in multiple ways. The most common is giving T-shirts with your corporate logo to visitors and customers at Trade shows and other such places. You can also ask your employees to wear them while they are on duty. They will probably wear them even when they are not working. No matter how you do it placing corporate logo on clothes provides excellent visibility to your business in addition to other benefits described below.
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Top 10 Blog Articles from 2012


As we herald into 2013 I thought it would be worthwhile to revisit the stories we produced in 2012 and the response we received from the readers. Here are the top 10 articles, in no particular order that got the most attention, discussion, controversy and response.
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What Yelp Business Listing can Do for Your Restaurant

Some restaurants are still unsure as to whether or not they want to claim their business on Yelp, the popular review site. They don’t feel like they need to pay attention to the review site while others don’t see the benefit that a review site can bring to their establishment, but a Yelp business listing can bring many advantages to your company, including the following.
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Want to Improve Sales and Customer Retention? Keep your Promises


The formula for success in small business is very simple – keep the promises you make to your customers. The relationship between customers and business owner is like an unwritten contract. Both parties expect the other to honor their side of the contract. In it, the business owner promises to sell his products or services at the advertised price with the best possible customer service. In return, the customer promises to keep giving business to you as long as you keep your side of the bargain.
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Customer Reminders – A Powerful Tool to Improve Loyalty and Sales


Reminders can be powerful personal productivity tool when used properly. On the other hand, forgetting to use them can be lead to dire consequences. Just ask anyone who has forgotten spouse’s birthday or marriage anniversary or someone who has missed the bill payment. The financial and social penalties you have to pay as a result are not trivial.
Small business owners can help customers overcome these challenges by facilitating reminders and, in the process, improve customer loyalty and sales. You can find examples of savvy businesses using reminders for these benefits if you look carefully. When I go for regular dental visit they usually set the next appointment for 6 months out. They also send me a reminder about a week in advance as the appointment approaches. Most of the car oil change locations put stickers on the windshield showing when the next oil change is due.
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Small Business Owners – Beware of These Social Media Marketing Traps


Many small business owners think of social media as panacea for all marketing and sales ills. They believe, often wrongly, that by jumping on the bandwagon of social media they will be able to improve their sales by 25% overnight. They are fooled by misconceptions promoted by the so called social media experts. I regularly get 4-5 emails every week from these experts offering me to help promote my blog and land it on the first page of Google Search for a charge!
While there is truth to the fact that every small business needs to have Internet and social media marketing strategy you have to first understand what it can and cannot do for your business and set the right expectations before jumping in. We do believe that there are selected social media tools that small businesses must use. It’s how you use it that really makes a difference. That is why I talked about social media best practices for small business owners in earlier post. In this post let’s turn the table and discuss the traps you need to watch out for when using social media for marketing purpose.
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Does Your Small Business have Local Internet Strategy

Sponsored Post (Brought to you by RevLocal)

Here is a quick question for you. Let’s say you are looking for a restaurant to go out for evening dinner with your friends or family. Where would you turn to find out? In the old days your answer would have been Yellow Pages (remember those thick books you used to keep?). Not anymore. These days more and more people are turning to web sites such as Google Places and Bing Local to uncover local businesses. These Online business listings, along with review sites such as Yelp, are becoming the new “Yellow Pages” of the Internet age.
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