Hot tips and tools for marketing your accounting practice
Influencer Marketing For Small Businesses And Startups
Some benefits of social media and content marketing are normally inaccessible for small businesses and startups because:
Make Small Business Accounting Fun
Owning a small business is exciting. You get to do what you love, day in, day out. But traditionally, small business accounting isn’t exciting. So how can we change this stereotype and make accounting fun and easy?
Understanding Cloud Computing
Cloud computing got you perplexed? You’re not alone. Most of us talk about ‘the cloud’ without even realising what it really means. We’re clearing the air on cloud computing and how it can benefit your small business.
It's About Time
We equate being busy as being virtuous. When we’re maxed out, it feels safe. It must be productive. (Or is it?) It’s a badge of courage, honor or something …
GST and BAS tips for running a successful business
Successful businesses spend that little bit of extra time on record keeping and getting their tax right, including preparing and lodging business activity statements (BAS). Once set up and organised, you’ll save time in the long run.
Are you being data smart with your smartphone?
A few weeks ago, the new shiny iPhone XS entered the market. For all the Apple lovers out there, this might mean being the first to wrap your hands around the irresistibly smooth all-glass design, or finally upgrading your old glitchy iPhone 6 to the new model. If this is you, I’m guessing you’re focused on the opportunity to start afresh, buy a new case, clear all those apps cluttering your current device, and start playing with its new features. Right?
4 Email Personalization Tactics That Are Sure to Get Clicks
Email is a notoriously fickle channel. Something as simple as tweaking the subject line can be the difference between an 8 percent or an 80 percent open rate.
Crafting Your Mobile Strategy: How Retailers Can Go Mobile and Increase Sales
We no longer need studies to tell us: Smartphones are almost everywhere. Most of the customers coming through your doors have a mobile device with them. And these devices aren’t always shoved in pockets or bags — shoppers are using them while they’re in store too.
Marketing your Advisory Services
An accounting firms' success is increasingly due to their people skills, rather than just their ability to crunch the numbers.
How to Post on Instagram: A Comprehensive Guide for Businesses
With more than 800 million active monthly users, Instagram is a social media channel of massive proportions. And, when used strategically, it can reap major benefits for your retail store.
7 Ways to Create In-Store Experiences That Drive Traffic and Sales
Question: are you planning to bring anything new to the in-store experience? If your answer is “no,” then brace yourself. The coming years could be rough for your retail business.
Branded Reporting for Advisory Success
Successful marketing is key to raising brand awareness and growing your advisory services. By ensuring that clients receive a professionally branded report and a tailored advisory experience at each meeting, you will enhance the overall perception of your brand to the wider business community and are more likely attract new clients.
How to Increase Your Profit Margins: 8 Proven Tips for Retailers
Your profit margin is a metric that should always be on your radar, and for good reason: it answers critical questions about your business, like whether or not you’re making money or if you’re pricing your products correctly.
9 Back to School Marketing Tips to Fuel Your Campaigns
Students in the US won’t be flocking back to campuses until September, but for retailers, it’s high time to ramp up back to school (BTS) and back to college (BTC) marketing campaigns.
11 Unique Sales Promotion Examples to Help You Stand Out and Attract Foot Traffic
These days, it seems like every retailer is running some sort of sales promotion. 25% off, $5 off a purchase of $50 or more, buy-one-get-one-free — these approaches are becoming so commonplace that it’s easy to get lost in the mix.
6 Father’s Day Promotion Ideas to Try in Your Retail Store
Father’s Day is just a few short weeks away, and while this holiday isn’t as huge as the day dedicated to moms, consumers still increase their spending quite a bit.
12 Retail Checkout Counter Ideas to Try in Your Store
When was the last time you gave your retail checkout counter some love? (And no, we’re not just referring to cleaning up your countertop or moving some stuff around.)
How to Engage and Sell to Gen Z
While millennials are still a significant consumer segment for retailers, there is another shopper group that’s continuing to gain spending power.
Local Store Marketing for Retailers: 6 Ideas to Boost Your Presence in the Neighborhood
Local store marketing is critical for many retailers, particularly those who have brick-and-mortar stores. Chances are, the bulk of your foot traffic comes from people in the neighborhood, so it’s vital that you get yourself in front of as many locals as possible.
How to Encourage Impulse Buys and Unplanned Purchases in Your Retail Store
Impulse purchases account for a significant chunk of the consumer spending pie. According to a study by Marketing Support, Inc. and Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, about one-third of all consumers make a sizeable impulse buy every week, with a median purchase of $30.
6 Retail Marketing Strategies to Help You Get New Customers
Whether you’re just setting up shop or been running your store for decades, acquiring new customers is always the name of the game.
We Asked Shoppers Who Their Favorite Retailers Are and Why. Here’s What They Said.
Who is your favorite retailer and why? We posted that question on LinkedIn last week because we wanted to learn more about the retailers that consumers love.
12 Examples of Retail Stores That Will Inspire You to Run Your Business Better
One of the best ways to get inspired in your retail business is to see merchants like yourself who are killing it.
Where Do Your Customers See Value?
Most small businesses are trying to grow their market share and revenue. This typically means thinking deeply about one of the major factors affecting inventory management: pricing strategy.
Social Media Lessons for Retailers
The 3 Best (and 3 Worst) Things You Can Do On Social Networks. Successfully managing your social media efforts takes more than just creating an account and posting a few updates every now and then.
How to Get Media Coverage for Your Retail Business: A DIY Guide
There are several advantages to getting some good PR for your business. In addition to generating buzz, getting covered by the press can drive traffic and sales while boosting your credibility in the process.
Do You Need to Up Your B2B Marketing Game?
Business to Business (B2B) marketing practices are changing. Here we identify the latest trends and best practices of 2017.
6 tips to help you create compelling content for your website
Is your New Year's resolution to update your website? Use our tips to help you create engaging content! Is your New Year's resolution to update your business website?
3 Great Examples of Retailers Reinventing Their Stores to Reach Modern Consumers
If you’ve been keeping abreast with the latest trends then you’ve likely heard about the shifting shopping habits of consumers.
What Retailers Should Know About Selling to Millennials (a Chat with Jasmine Glasheen)
Millennials. They’ve been called everything from entitled and lazy to fearless and empowered. But whatever you think about this generation, one thing is clear: Millennials (aka Gen Y) continue to have a significant impact on the economy and society in general.
6 tips to help you create compelling content for your website
Don't cut corners when creating content for your website. So you’ve decided to start an online business—congratulations!
Millennials Changing the Landscape of the Alcoholic Beverage Industry
Millennials have a significant influence in consumer trends in a wide range of industries. The alcoholic beverage industry, for example, is becoming increasingly conditioned by trends among millennial consumers.
13 practical ways to make your job ads stand out from the crowd
Writing great job ads is often more difficult than it looks. As well as selling the key requirements of the role, and presenting your company in a positive way, the job ad has to attract the right talent, and drive a response from suitably qualified candidates.
How to Sell More Gift Cards in Your Retail Store: 6 Proven Ways
Gift cards. No matter what type of store you have or how big your business is, you’ll likely benefit from carrying them in your shops.
15 Types of Posts That Do Extremely Well on Instagram
Retailers in various industries—be it fashion, homeware, or food—are reaping the benefits of Instagram.
How to take your business to the next level
You’ve done the hard work by setting up your business and establishing solid foundations with a good client base – congrats! So how do you expand, and do so profitably?
Empower your ecommerce customers with a branded mobile app
Over the past five years, mobile devices have begun to dominate the consumer landscape around the world.
Want to Create Amazing Customer Experiences? Learn From These 4 Homeware Stores
The homeware and furniture industry has been doing well for the past couple of years, and we expect this trend to continue. The annual expenditure on furniture per US consumer was $502 in 2015 (up from $386). Meanwhile, a report by Furniture Insights found that furniture orders for February 2017 were up 4% from last year.
The Power of Collaboration For Marketing Your Business
Collaboration is the key to success for every business—that’s what 75% of CEOs believe. It’s a way of bringing together diverse minds and ideas and sharing resources to create something bigger and better than individuals could achieve alone, and it’s gradually becoming the status quo for modern businesses in all sectors, including retail.
Everything You Need to Know About Influencer Marketing For Your Online Store
The field of marketing never stops evolving. Outdated strategies lose popularity and are soon overtaken by innovative approaches that pair tried-and-tested techniques with new technology. One of the latest strategies is influencer marketing, which takes word-of-mouth advertising and amplifies it through the huge social networks of high-profile individuals. Two-thirds of marketing professionals worldwide are pairing with influencers who can create original content to promote the brand to thousands or even millions of social media followers.
3 Key Marketing Challenges Your Online Store is Facing... and How to Fix Them
The web is loaded with articles that promise to help you market your ecommerce store, but there’s one really important fact they usually leave out: it takes time to see results from your marketing efforts, even when you’re doing everything right. How come?
Everything you need to know about email marketing for your ecommerce store
Over the past decade, social media platforms have grown in popularity and digital marketing has become one of the dominant ways for brands to interact with their customers. But digital marketing is more than just social media and, after all these years, email marketing is still one of the best ways to keep your customers informed and interested in your brand.
How to write copy for your ecommerce store that converts
If you had just one minute to talk to a prospective customer in your store, what would you say? Would you help them find what they were looking for? Tell them about your current promotions? Encourage them to stay a little longer and take a look around? After all, the more time they spend in your store, the more likely they are to make a purchase.
Social media: are you using it for your business?
Social media is a great tool; it’s a route to new and different customers and a direct way of communicating with your existing customers. It’s also a free way to build brand recognition and create a name for yourself in your field. So it’s surprising that many businesses still don’t have a social media presence. Sometimes this is a conscious decision, but quite often it’s due to people not always understanding the benefits. The reality is that social networks can bring a whole new dimension to your business – and they’re definitely a marketing tool worth using to your benefit.
How to keep your customers coming back to your ecommerce store
Attracting new customers to your ecommerce store is a must if you’re going to make a profit, especially in the early years of running your business. It’s one of the best ways to boost your sales in the short term, and grow your store. But there’s a lot of effort involved in acquiring new customers—it can cost six times as much as retaining your existing customers—so it seems like a shame to let them disappear off the face of the earth after just one purchase.
Feedback: why your business needs it, and how to get it
Your digital presence as a business is absolutely crucial. If you want consistent work, to build trust in your brand, and the opportunity for growth, you have to know how to gather feedback, and how to embrace it. Here, we’ve laid out the most important things you need to know about doing just that.
7 SEO strategies for your ecommerce site
Your online store is set up and ready to go. You’ve got an attractive site design and helpful product pages, and you’ve promoted your launch through social media and email marketing. Now all you have to do is sit back and enjoy…but you’re still not seeing the traffic you hoped for. What’s going on?
12 Digital marketing strategies to grow your online store (+ 3 bonus tips)
Whether you’ve just opened up shop or you’re expanding your ecommerce empire, one of the biggest ongoing challenges you’ll face is finding a way to increase traffic to your online store. Your high-quality products and stellar customer experiences are a good start, but if you want customers to find you, you’ll need to find a way to stand out in the crowd of competing businesses vying for their attention. In this post, we’ll take you through a collection of digital marketing strategies that will help you attract and retain a customer base that’s both engaged and loyal, so you can get ahead of the competition.
Making metrics honest with the internet
Almost every product or service imaginable these days has a website where anyone with an opinion can rate or comment on the product they purchased or service they received. And thanks to the smartphone, this can be done instantaneously.
Don't be a stranger: keeping in contact with customers
With loyal customers being worth up to 10 times as much as their first purchase, it pays to keep in touch even after you’ve made the sale. After all, they’re not easy to replace—new customers are in limited supply, significantly less likely to buy, and up to six times more expensive to sell to than your existing customer base. So it’s important for retailers to retain their customers by building authentic relationships that benefit both parties.
Do you want to attract more customers?
Grow your business through marketing and advertising! Whether you’re a personal trainer or a large computer repair shop, if you want to grow and build your business, you’ll need to attract new customers and keep them coming back for more. Effectively marketing your business is one way to grow your brand and your business.
5 Important Lessons SMBs Can Learn from Retail Giants
As an SMB, you’ll never have a shortage of sources for tips and insights. From retail websites (such as this one) to mentors and fellow retailers, there’s always somewhere to turn to for business advice and best practices.
How to Personalize the Customer Experience: 5 Quick Tips for Retailers
Personalization is one of the most important aspects of retail and one of the biggest industry trends for 2017. The key to building lasting relationships with customers, personalized shopping experiences generate satisfaction and loyalty on the part of the consumer — and increased revenue for the retailer.
7 Ways to Get the Most out of Amazon Sponsored Products
With more than 350 million products on Amazon.com it becomes more and more difficult for sellers to get their products in front of the customer. Thus, Amazon’s “Sponsored Products” ads (“Amazon PPC”) are becoming extremely popular among sellers as they offer an (allegedly) easy way to bring their products on the first page. The following tips will help Amazon sellers avoid some common mistakes and get the most out of Amazon Sponsored Products.
Going Paperless: 6 Ways to Digitize Your Retail Business
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when the word “paperless” is brought up?
Don't get beaten by your competitors
I am astounded by the number of times I search for a product online, click the option to purchase, only to find that I then need to phone the retailer to pay. In 2016, this kind of disconnected experience is not good enough. Connected consumers want the freedom to buy from anywhere at any time, with a recent Zendesk survey revealing that 67% of consumers use multiple channels to make purchases.
Why a website is vital for a small business
With smartphones at our fingertips, customers are searching online more than anywhere else to research a product. As a small business owner, it’s critical that you have a website ready for customers who are looking you up. Understanding why it is important and figuring out where to start can be intimidating. Here’s what you need to know.
Make sure your customers keep coming back
Small businesses will often say that their number one goal is business growth. But where does business growth come from? An easy answer to this can be “attracting new customers”. But attracting new customers can come at a very high price. Marketing has become increasingly difficult with online advertising and social media offering. Competition is fierce. Every other small business is online competing for potential customers. On the other hand, you could rely on word-of-mouth, but that is going to be a very slow process.
10 Tips For Marketing Your Business On A Shoestring Budget
Marketing. *Cringe*. You can think of a million things you’d rather be doing. The ice bucket challenge in the middle of winter. A half marathon with your ridiculously fit niece, a Toastmasters table topics competition in front of 100 unknown people.
The growing social enterprise proving there is such thing as a free lunch
The concept behind Auckland-based social enterprise Eat My Lunch is a simple one. Buy a lunch and a kiwi-kid in need gets one for free. But there’s a level of complexity behind the scenes to ensure its sustainable future – from carefully planning menus to ensure zero-waste kitchen to thorough financial forecasting.
8 Tips For Launching Your New Marketing Campaign
All too often a brand will launch a new product or service that flops because of a poorly thought through marketing campaign – so here are 8 tips for a successful marketing campaign.
10 Things You’re Not Doing To Nurture Your Clients
Research suggests it costs a business between 4-10 times more to acquire a new client than it does to retain a current client. As a business owner, you will do well to look for ways to nurture these clients who’ve used you once into not just returning, but spreading the word about your company.
5 Classic Blogging Mistakes Small Businesses Make (And How To Avoid Them)
You’ve got a beautiful business blog, full of white space and full bleed imagery. It’s responsive, a pleasure to scroll through and sure looks a whole lot snazzier than what your competitors are pushing out on a regular basis. You know you’re getting traffic because comments are surfacing every now and again, “likes” are trickling from your social feeds – but all in all it’s not really converting to new business or opportunities. What are you doing wrong?
Which Social Media Channel is Best for My Small Business?
Is your small business on social media yet? I’m sure you’ve heard of the great potential social media holds for marketing your company, so I won’t preach to the converted. Everyone knows about the 6 big players - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and LinkedIn - but trust me, not all of them are right for your small business.
Protecting the brand you’re working on
Where there’s business there’s brands. Those succinct simple representations of an organisation carry enormous power and the task of making a business or cause memorable and enduring. Around the globe maybe millions of minds are beavering away on developing brands to drive their marketing, and cement their future prosperity.
10 Examples of Outstanding Customer Service That Fuels Loyalty
You put a lot of work into gaining your customers. So once you have them, you don’t want them to simply buy from you once, and then leave you to go out acquiring new customers. That’s exactly what might happen if your customer has a bad experience with your customer service.
10 Tips for Coming Up With a Killer Business Name
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” In one of Shakespeare's most famous lines, he reminds us that a name really is just... a name. But is a name more when it comes to business? Let’s for a moment look at some of the perks of a smart business name.
How ecommerce pioneers built household name in South Africa
Andrew Smith and neighbour Shane Dryden founded Yuppiechef, South Africa’s most loved online store, in 2006. The pair had been working on a couple ideas, including a business selling flags and bug zappers, but decided to run with Yuppiechef.
Are You Really Charging What You’re Worth? Here's How To Avoid Underselling Your Services
“The cheapest trainer in the world is too expensive if the client isn’t yet sold on your value” – Jon Goodman, Ignite the Fire.
Take care with ‘NZ Made’ claims
A recent High Court case shows companies need to take extra care when claiming their products are New Zealand made, an intellectual property expert says.
Marketing with Kindness
I believe that a useful goal in marketing is to have people remember us positively. In other words we want them to be thinking and saying good things about our business as often as possible.
4 easy tips for building a successful brand
Every successful company, large or small, has a strong brand. In fact, the most important and valuable asset of some of the largest companies in the world – Apple, Google and Coca-Cola – is their brand. But you don’t need a massive marketing budget to build a successful brand. It can be done with just a few simple changes to the way you think about and operate your business.
5 Ways Retailers Can Increase Word of Mouth and Referrals
Word of mouth is one of the most powerful drivers of traffic and sales for retailers. According to McKinsey, it’s the primary factor behind 20 – 50% of all buying decisions and can influence purchases in ways that traditional advertising can’t. Word of mouth is like the holy grail of marketing. And to help you tap into it, we’ve compiled some tips that you can put into action in your store.
The Cheap Competition Conundrum: How To Stay Competitive In Your Industry
It’s an issue a lot of our customers face: being priced out of work by newer, shinier and yes, cheaper competition. If your business is losing clients this way, it’s time to assess what’s going on. As any business grows, one of the biggest challenges is keeping costs to a minimum while bringing in more revenue and staying profitable. In others words: achieving business efficiency. So how can you go about doing this?
Where should I run my business from?
When starting a business, one of the things you’ll need to work out is where you’ll operate. Each business has different requirements, so it’s important to consider what will work for you when deciding on a location for your business.
Open this email! Please?… Email marketing 101
If you want a quick and low-cost strategy to get more jobs quickly, then email marketing is a must do. But how do you make it work?
How to come up with a name that suits your business
Some company names have interesting stories behind them. For example, Nike is named after the Greek goddess of victory. Yahoo! Is short for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.” Steve Jobs came up with the name Apple after a trip to an apple farm. He thought the name sounded “fun, spirited and not intimidating.”
Xero Gravity: Why digital marketing makes small biz better
Five customers from 100 leads is huge. But what about the other 95 that started out interested? The answers lay in digital marketing. This week, Xero Gravity host Elizabeth Ü chats to Michael Mothner, Founder & CEO of online marketing firm WPromote. He’ll bust digital marketing myths and provide solutions that won’t burn a hole in your pocket. We’ll also explore questions like, “We created a website, what now?” and “I get business from world of mouth, why do I need digital too?”
What trades and services businesses must do to stand out and be trusted
There is one quality that every trades or services business needs to survive – trustworthiness. Without it, a company and all who sail in her are destined for a watery grave.
How to Define and Reach Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is vital for developing a marketing strategy that works. Without a particular ideal customer in mind, your efforts amount to little more than wishful thinking. There are very few niches where a business will be unopposed, and if you aren’t making efforts to refine your marketing focus to build better leads, you can be sure that your competition is. Having a great product is only part of the equation. Getting it in front of the right faces is as, if not more, important.
Be authentic, and discover what your customers really want
Over the last few years we’ve been able to get a pretty good handle on your biggest pain points as a business.
4 easy things you can do to drive customer engagement
One of the easiest ways to drive sales for your business is to have repeat and referral customers. But if you want a customer to keep coming back, or to refer you to their friends, you have to keep them engaged. This doesn’t mean hammering them with emails or making sure they’re following all your social media accounts. It means interacting with them in a meaningful way, a way that makes an impact.
A Retailer’s Guide to Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giving Back is Good for Business
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly popular concept in the retail world. More and more merchants are realizing that giving back doesn’t just make the world a better place, it’s also good for business.
Keeping a positive customer relationship – as easy as saying “Thank you”?
As a small business owner, it’s quite likely you play both the role of salesperson and debt chaser. On one hand you want to keep the relationship positive so you can continue selling to that customer, but on the other hand you need your bills paid for your business to survive. Maintaining customer loyalty and satisfaction while keeping a credit control policy that’s abided by can (at times) put you in an awkward position.
Xero Gravity: Social Media: The ins & outs of marketing
Social media. It’s big, it’s fast, and it’s growing. What can you do to make sure you’re using the right social channels to connect with your customers and market your brand? In this episode of Xero Gravity, hosts Elizabeth Ü and Gene Marks are joined by Mychelle Mollot, CMO at Klipfolio, and Raheela Nanji, Director at Ree Consulting Inc., to discuss all the nitty gritty details of social media in business.
Why you should keep marketing even when business is booming
When business is booming and everything’s going well, it seems fair to cut back on your marketing efforts. More business means less spare time, so investing effort in marketing becomes difficult, and easy to neglect.
Why Customer Service is as important as Marketing
Customer retention is vital for the growth and sustainability of any eCommerce business. The cost of acquiring new customers means building loyalty within your current customer base should take precedence.
Top 5 reasons your small business needs a website right now
With smartphones at our fingertips, customers are searching online more than anywhere else to research a product. As a small business owner, it’s critical that you have a website ready for customers who are looking you up. Understanding why it is important and figuring out where to start can be intimidating. Here’s what you need to know.
The Power of Personalisation
With many products and services you can increase sales and attract large numbers of new clients by using personalisation. Personalisation just means you modify what you are selling so that it has more value to a particular type of customer.
Social media meets field service
We all know by now that it’s essential for a business to have an internet presence; a company website is the mainstay for anyone doing business in the 21st century. But what about a company Facebook page, Twitter account or LinkedIn profile? Are you losing out on potential customers by ignoring these social networking heavies? Do you panic when you think about how your lack of social media savvy has caused you to miss out on reaching your sales goals?
How to get "Success Insurance"
One of the most frustrating things in life is when you get all fired up and decide to make some big improvements in your results. So you set goals to get in great physical shape, improve your business results, spend a lot more time with your family etc.
Strategies to grow your blog following and drive traffic
Writing a fantastic blog is just the first part in the process of channeling more traffic to your site. To be of any value, it needs to be read and shared by your audience and beyond. Below are five of the most common and effective ways to give your content exposure.
Keeping customers loyal: it’s easier with tech
In today’s competitive marketplace, there is little room for error for owners and operators in the field services industry. Businesses are under more pressure than ever to deliver an exceptional service that aligns with what customers expect.
The power of content marketing
I received some excellent marketing advice recently from Lori Nash Byron the founder of Famous in Your Field. Lori was talking about the power of content marketing. And here a few of the tips she shared with me about content marketing.
How to sell a high priced service
When you sell an expensive or high priced service there are three marketing challenges you need to solve…
Graham McGregor on wacky marketing strategies…
One of my favourite marketing experts is my good friend Troy White in Calgary Canada. 7 years ago Troy had an epiphany. He realized that the best marketing promotions he had done for his clients involved some wacky themes.
Create a quality blog post every time
Blogging is one of the most valuable tools that a business has to engage with customers; it’s a direct communication channel to share timely and relevant information, plus, it fuels SEO for your business website.
The Do Not Call Register
Does your business use telemarketing or fax marketing to promote goods or services? If so, you need to be aware of your obligations under the Do Not Call Register Act External Site.
A retailer explains how you can still make a living with a bricks-and-mortar store
At Xero, we use the power of technology to foster innovation, connection and entrepreneurialism. To create beautiful work that makes a difference. This is why each month, we speak to business leaders within our like-minded community – to see how they apply similar values to shape their businesses, and their futures. This month, we speak to Ted Gethen – founder of The Black Label Tailoring. Together with his business partner, Brendan, Ted has built a strong supply chain and opened four stores which give men the opportunity to dress with style and comfort, at a price point they can afford. Ted tells us in his words why personal customer service has become the cornerstone of their success. And also how, in a world of internet shopping, their bricks-and-mortar business continues to thrive.