internet tools for small businesses in central oregon
DESCRIPTION
In this presentation, we introduce several free (or low-cost) Internet-based tools to help small businesses in Central Oregon with finances, growth, customer experience, and productivity. First presented by Stephanie Senner at the Bend Chamber of Commerce's Professional Enrichment Series breakfast.TRANSCRIPT
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Stephanie Senner | BendBroadband
Internet Power Tools to Drive
BUSINESS
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Contents
• Introduction:– Why do I need the Internet to drive my business?– What actually drives business according to Central Oregon
business owners?
• Tools for Growth & Finances• Tools for Customer Experience• Tools for Productivity & Organization
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DRIVE BUSINESS?Why do I need the Internet to
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The Changing Day (for your customers and you)
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DRIVES BUSINESS?What actually
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“What Is Your #1 Business Goal This Year?”
20%
44%
24%
11%
Customer ExperienceGrowthStaffing/ProductivityRelationships/ Networking
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Let’s take a look at three priorities for Central Oregon businesses.
1Growth &Finances
2Customer
Experience
3Productivity &
Organization
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“Only those who will risk
going too farcan possibly find out how far they can go.”
-T.S. Eliot
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Growth & Finances
Find and Retain More Customers
1
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How to Know When You’re Growing
• inDinero– Pulls and organizes transaction
history – No data entry – Sorts transactions by category and
tracks spending changes monthly– Accounting reports – Plans range from free to $49.95 per
month
• BodeTree – Only works w/Intuit’s QuickBooks– Automatic breakdowns of expenses– Shows how you stack up against
competitors – Offers financial projections – Calculates estimation of your
company's worth– “Business enlightenment score” of
overall health of your business according to their algorithms
– $250 a year or $24.99 a month
• Corelytics – Imports financial info from
QuickBooks, Sage Peachtree, MYOB, and others
– Monitor whatever metrics you want and set goals for each
– Revenue, expense, profits, receivables, gross margin,
– Dashboard colors each metric red, yellow, or green, depending on where you are against goals you set
– Compare your progress with competitors
– Plans range from free to $69 a month w/ $180 set-up fee
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SEO, PPC, and Other Things to Outsource
• SEO– See last breakfast presentation
• PPC– Adwords and Facebook (Test | Offer | Get Help)
• Remarketing– Display ads for people who have visited your website
• Display Network– Display ads sites for people w/ defined interests
• Retargeting– Display ads for people who have not visited your website
(but have searched for certain keywords)• Beta
• Go home, Facebook. You’re drunk.– On top of freaking me out with the dress I just looked at,
they are telling me my best friend from college and my old bible study teacher like their website. Really?
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Most Expensive Google Keywords
http://www.wordstream.com/articles/most-expensive-keywords
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Content Marketing: Beyond YOUR Blog
• Write a guest blog article• From Shopify article on Resource
hand-out, here is help identifying relevant blogs:– www.invesp.com/blog-rank
Blog ranking directory w/ category search
– www.alltop.com news aggregator site
– www.Technorati.com Top 100 blogs within different niches
– www.Alexa.com Top sites by category; research a site’s traffic and audience profile by entering the web address
– www.MyBlogGuest.com Forum for finding guest bloggers • Use Alexa to ensure sites have traffic
• Create a relationship • Comment on and share their
content• Suggest a dynamite story
(maybe even write it first)• Take time to cultivate the
relationships• Opportunity to curate
content for your own blog, Twitter feed, Facebook posts, etc.
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WiseStamp: Email Signatures with Dynamic Content
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My New Favorite Content Site: Slideshare.net
• I’m biased as a B2B Marketer who wants to be buried with her Logitech Pointer Pro, but this site is a treasure trove of information, including training content for business owners.
• Hosts slide decks• Protects content• Embedded lead gen• Analytics dashboard• See also:– Scribd – ZohoShow– SlideRocket
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Beyond Words: Growth Through YouTube
• The Obvious:– Product Presentations or
Demonstrations– Video Training– Video Customer
Testimonials – Live video streaming – Commercials
• Content Marketing:– How-to – Advice– Education – Person-on-the-street
interviews at events– Reviews of 3rd party
products or vendors
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What Are Your Competitors Doing?
• eNewsletters provide insight into what’s working in your industry
• Look for what your customers would read, too
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And Now For Something Totally Different
• Sign up to be an Amazon.com Pick Up Zone
• People who can’t have their packages delivered go pick them up at your business
• And maybe then you sell them something
• May work well in a vacation/resort community like ours
• Sacrifice = space for packages
• Amazon.com to learn more about requirements
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“There is only one boss: the customer. And he can
fire everybodyin the company from the chairman on down,
simply by spending his money somewhere else.” -Sam Walton
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2 Customer Experience
Improve Your Customers’ Satisfaction
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Rock Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day
• http://www.pardot.com/infographic/rock-social-media-30-minutes-day-infographic/
• http://visual.ly/how-much-time-money-do-smbs-spend-social-media
• Reputation.com• Angie’s List• Yelp, Google+, Local Search, Yahoo, etc.• LinkedIn
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Another Option: Save Time with HootSuite
• Be careful with this one– People don’t want to see
the same content on Facebook, Google+, and Twitter so use universal publishing sparingly
• See also:– TweetDeck– Seesmic
• Free version includes:– HootSuite Conversations– 5 Social Profiles– Basic Analytics Reports– Message Scheduling– Unlimited Apps– 2 RSS/Atom Feeds
• Pro is $8.99/month
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Email Marketing & eNewsletters to Customers
• If you’re using Constant Contact, Emma, etc., consider moving up the ladder to a Marketing automation option:– Act On– Marketo– Pardot– HubSpot– Eloqua
• Drip campaigns based on customer interactions
• Successful newsletter? Sell ad space – Small coupon at the bottom
w/ a different vendor each month
• No successful newsletter? Find someone who has a similar list/business and see if they’ll write an editorial about how great you are.
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Loyalty Card Alternative: Perka
• Smartphone versions of punch cards and points cards with promo capability built in
• Seems reasonable– $35/mo for punches– $50/mo for points
• More flexible than Incentify and Punchtab
• More local and proactive than RetailMeNot
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More Options for Perka
• Join together w/ others – 10 Dates in 10 Days – Specific neighborhoods
• Speaking of neighborhoods, can we start something today? – SoGAve
• Rhymes with agave, the tequila ingredient• South of Greenwood Ave, ie, west of 27th, South of HWY 20, but east of 97
(since that neighborhood already has a name)– SoCOH
• South of Central Oregon Highway, ie, east of 27th and South of HWY 20
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“Time is at once the most valuable and
most perishableof all our possessions.”
-John Randolph
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3 Productivity & Organization
Plan and Execute Your Business Priorities
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Game Changers
• Asana– Free– Amazing– Integrates w/ Google– Is one Facebook
founder’s attempt to pay back to Productivity what he stole
– Simple, fast help content– Can be used as CRM
• Bitrix24– Free for up to 12 users– Easy but extensible – Integrates w/Outlook– Social intranet
functionality• Distributed workers• Staffing/shift changes
– Project Management– Can be used as CRM
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Time Savers
• InstaPaper & Pocket– Pull web content down
to reader or desktop– Great for travel and
archiving
• TripIt & Expensfy– TripIt Pro allows you to
manage others’ travel– “Expense reports that
don’t suck.”
• Learning and Training– Lynda.com– Khan Academy– iTunesU– Bend Chamber of
Commerce website’s Helpful Links page
• Inbox Zero:– Turn it into what it is
• Task, Appointment, Contact, or Trash
– Get Things Done (GTD) <2 minutes = do it now
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Communication
• WebEx• GoToMeeting• FuzeMeeting• GoogleChat• Skype• The Phone
– Yes, that counts as an Internet tool.
– Yes, even if it’s CenturyLink.
• File Exchange/Sync– Google Drive– SkyDrive– DropBox– SugarSync– GoToMyPC
• Photo Streams– Flickr– Picassa– Instagram– Google “Digital Asset
Management”
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Less Obvious Tools for Collaboration
• VoiceThread– $20/mo/user or $79/mo
for up to 15-ish users– Intuitive interface makes
it easy to get going– Information retention
demonstrably improved
• FlipBoard– Mostly for iPad lovers
• Jing– Free– Screencaps, video,
demos, sharing
• LiveBinders – Content from multiple
sources all in one place– Prevent data stagnation
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iPhone Apps
• LiveTimer– Perfect for billable industries or tracking time for
multiple clients– Lets you set up different billing rates
• BalanceDo– Create invoices– Track receivables– Manages customer payments through PayPal