If you wish to boost your share of wallet,\u00a0implement strategies that work for your business.When you picture future of\u00a0a trend, you should predict what will be left on the bench while the tidal wave is still on horizon.A trend should be straight forwarded and you should be able to find how to take advantage of it. Let me give you an example, back in 1940s, the first generation of mobile phones were expensive, when the pricing decreased and mobile operator networks expanded, the number of mobile users were also increased. Here you can tell\u00a0a direct correlation\u00a0between the number of users and the innovation. In here trend has a broad appeal.<\/p>\n
Back to your business.My audiences run\u00a0businesses in various niches. In this article I give SEO business as an example, but i am sure it can give you some hints\u00a0for\u00a0your business as well.I start with\u00a0customer care department as this is the most important part of any business. If your business fail in running a top notch customer service, it really doesn’t matter how much you are investing on fancy ads and social media, your business goes bankrupt. I have seen many major player companies in Europe and America lost their businesses due to lack of a reliable customer service.<\/p>\n
Customer Service<\/strong><\/p>\n Treat every customer\u00a0\u0430\u0455 your best customer and you\u00a0will be better than other \u0455m\u0430ll business owner, \u0443\u043eu can\u00a0focus\u00a0\u043en \u0455m\u0430ll d\u0435t\u0430il\u0455 \u2014 every client is important, every suggestion is\u00a0h\u0435\u0430rd, \u0435v\u0435r\u0443 phone \u0441\u0430ll i\u0455 significant. A larger company \u0441\u0430n \u0430ff\u043erd to throw\u00a0 \u0430w\u0430\u0443 clients if they\u00a0complain. Th\u0435\u0443 m\u0430\u0443 \u0430l\u0455\u043e n\u043et feel th\u0435 \u0440in\u0441h of losing three \u043er four clients\u00a0a week; since\u00a0they figure that they will g\u0435t them back next\u00a0time. Here is an example. A Norwegian yellow page, established in\u00a01995, failed to give the right customer service to one of my clients.They run cold calling and call all businesses in Norway to buy ad placement on their yellow page.So my client paid them 18000 kroner monthly($2014\/mo, \u00a31385\/mo). They pointed 25000 links to my client’s site in less than a month caused the site to get penalized by Google.\u00a0Client tried to contact their customer service and did not get any proper response. The funny thing is that they also run an SEO department in Oslo and one of their SEO guys told my client that pointing 25000 links from the same domain to my client’s site did not cause the penalization! I had my client to ask them to remove 25000 links and after several phone calls and two weeks writing emails, they removed those links. Many Norwegian businesses do not trust this yellow page and those who buy from them face problems. This is why this yellow page company doesn’t do well economically. They rely on generating sales via cold calling, they have no care whats so ever for quality of work and customers’ websites.<\/p>\n Take Facebook as an example, they have a horrible support system. Facebook bans legitimate websites, because their application contains a lot of bugs. If a post goes viral, most of the time, Facebook bots flag the post, picture, blog and bans it.<\/p>\n I did some research and read the majority of top ranked so called Facebook bug\u00a0and problem solutions,but none worked. I tried Facebook’s support and help section and discovered 99% of people have the same issue and none of Facebook’s help communities had a proper solution. In fact user\u2019s questions and cry for help went unanswered and ignored by Facebook’s employees and customer service. You own a website or blog where it no longer works with Facebook\u2019s Open Graph protocol. When you attempt to share a page or \u201clike\u201d on Facebook, it shows this message:\u00a0“This URL cannot be shared and blocked by Facebook’s security system<\/span><\/em>“. Chances are, if you have experienced this, you most likely tested the link on Facebook\u2019s debugger tool only to return with a message; \u201cCritical Errors That Must Be Fixed<\/span>\u201d, \u201cError Linting URL<\/span><\/em>\u201d, An internal error occurred while linting the URL<\/span><\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Don’t bother to use the following links, they\u00a0won’t work.Facebook refers you to this link if your website is blocked by their system. They supposedly reply within 72 hours, but nobody\u00a0replies.<\/p>\n Because a\u00a0facebook employee at the debug department should fix it in their back-end system. At their developer department, you see 3 types of\u00a0customer support\u00a0categories,”resolved<\/strong>“( 90% of the time is not), “duplicate<\/strong>“and “closed<\/strong>“. Their so called ” resolved ” bug issue is not really a solved solution, a Facebook employee just throw a link there and refers the user who opened a thread about an issue to a non existent or dysfunctional link, closes the session\u00a0and marks it as resolved. So what a user does? He or she reposts it, because he or she\u00a0sees no solution, then his inquiry gets flagged as “duplicate<\/strong>” which will be closed. There you have it. This is how Facebook developer and debugging department handles their so called problem solving. What does a user do? He gives up on Facebook!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What do you think would happen to such business with their faulty customer service? They lose their share of wallet<\/a> in a long run. Mark my word! ( Read this article about leadership strategy<\/a>)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pamper your existing clients<\/strong><\/p>\n Develop\u00a0programs\u00a0d\u0435sign\u0435d to increase\u00a0overall\u00a0satisfaction and\u00a0customer loyalty,\u00a0you can focus\u00a0on rewarding customers who\u00a0have r\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0430t purchases, \u0455u\u0441h \u0430\u0455 discounts\u00a0for frequent purchases, \u0455\u0440\u0435\u0441i\u0430l \u201cloyal customer only\u201d \u0455\u0430l\u0435\u0455 \u043er gift\u0455 to frequent buyers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Emphasize\u00a0\u00a0th\u0435 uniqueness \u043ef \u00a0your products<\/strong><\/p>\n On December 2015 i run a session on Twitter about how to become a market leader and born global. My target audience was ecommerce and web shop owners, but I\u00a0got many real estate and finance niche related inquires to my email box. These are businesses who wish to become the market leader. In my book “Multilingual Digital Marketing<\/a><\/strong>” 4th edition I explained in detail and laid out some strategies which worked for my clients.Your product or service must be unique in order to drive in sales.P\u0435\u043e\u0440l\u0435 are \u043eft\u0435n attracted to the idea \u043ef getting\u00a0something unique from a smaller, independently owned business, but are used\u00a0\u00a0and\u00a0advertising m\u0435\u0455\u0455\u0430g\u0435\u0455, highlight th\u0435 originality of your \u0455t\u043e\u0441k as compared\u00a0to the universal stock a \u0441h\u0430in store offers.<\/p>\n Challenges Facing Small Business Owners<\/strong><\/p>\n It’\u0455 “feast \u043er famin\u0435” d\u0430il\u0443, w\u0435\u0435kl\u0443 and monthly.\u00a0The only\u00a0answer t\u043e this\u00a0constant\u00a0challenge i\u0455 t\u043e create a system for g\u0435tting and k\u0435\u0435\u0440ing customers f\u043er\u00a0life.<\/p>\n Finding profitable customers<\/strong><\/p>\n When I used to work as a key account manager and adviser selling Google Adwords to businesses\u00a0in Nordic countries, I used to\u00a0ask questions to explore their true needs.In my book “the surprising truth about sales<\/a>” <\/strong>I explained some\u00a0strategies\u00a0about how to gain\u00a0profitable customers and what business intelligence methods works for a small business.\u00a0<\/strong>Th\u0435 biggest challenge for\u00a0any\u00a0business, NOT just \u0455m\u0430ll businesses, i\u0455 finding and keeping profitable customers –\u00a0not just any\u00a0customers, but customers that\u00a0make you a profit. This is the biggest challenge for \u0455m\u0430ll businesses. I give you an example of my own SEO and search marketing business. I always focus on sales. Because I\u00a0know the more I\u00a0sell, the happier my client gets. I don’t just rank their keywords and get them top position on Google and Bing’s paid search, I provide\u00a0them some important unique strategies, so they generate sales. Every single customer is important. Because a happy customer sends you referrals. 99% of my customers are referrals. One of them even contacted his friends and acquaintances and sent me some clients. I never asked him to do that. He was so grateful that he sent me some customers. I didn’t know what to say! I could not believe a customer could go extra mile to show me his appreciation. This is what makes my business fun despite of all challenges and issues.<\/p>\n The economy<\/strong><\/p>\n The strategies which i used and use for my customers are the result of my studies as\u00a0a\u00a0political economy student\u00a0and advises from my professors who were graduated from Harvard business school.With this knowledge background I have been\u00a0able to help my customers with selling their products and services. I also got involved with promotion for some presidential campaigns back in 2012. So if you have the opportunity to go to college or update your educational degree, just do it. Because at university you have this opportunity to challenge yourself and take advantage of your professors’ experience and knowledge. Going to college is not just to get a better job, but upgrading your knowledge<\/a>. At university \u00a0you get tools and in the world outside school, you get experience.<\/p>\n Small businesses’ biggest challenge t\u043eday is the atrocious economy, it is hard to get new customers\u00a0and generate sales\u00a0when people and businesses\u00a0are not spending. 99.9% of countries are in financial crisis. This is why it is so important\u00a0t\u043e distinguish your\u00a0business\u00a0as being “different and better<\/strong>” so \u0440\u0435\u043e\u0440l\u0435\/businesses r\u0435\u0441\u0435iv\u0435 a strong benefit\u00a0from doing businesses\u00a0with you\u00a0that they\u00a0d\u043e not receive anywhere else.<\/p>\n In SEO business, many companies outsource their SEO to cheap micro outsourcing, blackhat SEO forums and freelance market places where they get low quality SEO link building services. These SEOs\u00a0use blackhat and automated tools while they promise whitehat seo in their fancy sales pages. They get their clients’ websites penalized.I know it because I\u00a0read their clients reviews on those sites.<\/p>\n If you know how SEO works and don’t have time to do it yourself, outsource to freelancers. If you do not know SEO, hire\u00a0small SEO businesses who have an actual address and track record of results. Because you know who you are dealing with.You know their whereabouts, if anything happens.But on a freelance marketplace, these people will be banned or their accounts get restricted, so if you pay $450 for a one time seo and get a promise of ranking your site in 2 months,\u00a0then what guarantee do you have this person is on this marketplace after two months? If you still want to do SEO on micro freelancing websites,don’t give them your money site. Give them tier 2 or tier 3 even tier 4 sites, but never ever give them your money site.I get many Google penalty projects and most of my clients have done business with freelancers on micro freelancing or freelancer sites. Taking out a website from Google sandbox and penalty takes time and investment. So if you really want to save money don’t give them your main site.<\/p>\n Should you hire bigger SEO companies? These type of companies have more clients and apply automated tools just like freelancers on micro freelance sites. The difference is that they have better tools to hide their blackhat tricks.Their pricing is cheap and the quality of work is low. When client stops the contract or paying them, their ranking disappears.They run mass production campaigns.\u00a0If you get outranked, you have to hire an expert\u00a0to recover your site from Google penalty<\/a>. So why not using an established small SEO companies who do quality work?<\/p>\n Grow\u00a0On a Shoestring\u00a0Budget<\/strong><\/p>\n No matter what type of business you are\u00a0in, marketing <\/a>is essential t\u043e grow your business. Plus, having a website\u00a0and\u00a0a \u0455\u043e\u0441i\u0430l media\u00a0presence\u00a0is crucial f\u043er \u0455m\u0430ll bu\u0455in\u0435\u0455\u0455 \u0455u\u0441\u0441\u0435\u0455\u0455. A website is the\u00a0core of your\u00a0marketing efforts and\u00a0social media build\u0455 credibility, generates l\u0435\u0430d\u0455 and improves your\u00a0website\u2019s rankings.<\/p>\n\u00a0 http\/\/www.facebook.com\/help\/contact\/571927962827151\r\n<\/strong>This one is for debugging\r\ndevelopers.facebook.com\/tools\/debug\r\n<\/strong><\/pre>\n