Running a blog to support your business in some way can be a good marketing move although it doesn’t suit every business or every business owner/manager.
Like everything else in business, just because running a blog is a good idea doesn’t mean it is easy to do or doesn’t have issues for the people behind the business.
So what are your biggest hurdles with running a business blog?
Leading up to friend’s birthdays and Christmas, gift certificates for product-based stores and personal services (eg a massage or facial) are often considered as a convenient gift the recipient can redeem for whatever they want.
There is also value for the business giving out gift certificates – quiet promotions, value add, follow on sales and cash flow in particular.
So would you give a business service gift certificate?
Here are a couple of situations where I think it could work:
1. a friend has just started their business and is overwhelmed with the things to do’ so you give a voucher for a VA’s services
2. as a web designer you know there is more than good design required for success so with all projects above $x you give a gift certificate to a professional writer to kick things off
3. instead of giving a bottle of wine or box of chocolates, a business gives out vouchers for a business service to enhance clients’ business. Obviously they need to be complementary businesses with a similar market so a business coach could give out vouchers for bookkeeping, a designer could give a voucher for a printer and a writer could give gift certificates from an IT support business.
4. you want to give a friend/client the means of improving something about their business, just because you like them or you can see their business really needs the help
5. it is the anniversary of your business relationship or someone starting their business so acknowledging that with something that will further their business (rather than a hamper or bunch of flowers) gives more meaning to your gesture
Have you ever thought of giving a gift voucher for a professional service? If you’ve done it, how did it go?
It isn’t only people who ‘can’t write’ who use the services of professional writers like me; in fact, many of my clients can write reasonably well. However, there is a misconception that hiring a writer means you are stupid or can’t write so I thought I’d share a few examples of where people find it helpful to talk to a professional writer.
1. writing about yourself. I’ve had a few people who are excellent writers ask me to write their website about us page or a business profile as they don’t feel objective enough to write about themselves
2. writing specific items. It takes some different skills and knowledge to write web content and technical reports for instance, so I have clients ask me to write their procedures but write their own web copy.
3. they don’t like writing. I don’t like doing data entry or researching differences between mobile phones, and I don’t expect that everyone likes writing as much as I do 🙂 Many of my clients are relieved to be able to hand me their written needs so they don’t have to face it themselves – and because it leaves them time for what they do like doing (hopefully!)
4. writing takes time – and we’re all busy. For my clients who can write, time is usually the biggest reason they hire a professional writer – they are simply too busy to write their own material. In many cases, I can write it faster than they would have anyway, so it saves them time in two ways really.
5. consistent and effective results. I write all the time and can set aside blocks of time for clients so what I produce for them is consistent (within that document but also with their other materials) and effective whereas they have more distractions if they try writing it themselves so the result is often less than optimum.
Can you relate to any of the above reasons for using a professional writer? How do you deal with such situations if you don’t hire professinoal help?
As a communications person, I do more for clients than just write. Recently, I reviewed the newsletter process for a client.
Initially, they were sending out a paper based newsletter but introduced an email version a few years ago. About a year ago, I helped them make the html (email) version shorter and more suited to emailing. The purpose of the recent review was to consider how to present their newsletter moving forward.
Here are some of the key points I considered before making a recommendation that suited the client’s needs:
There is no one size fits all answer to the question of paper or html newsletter, but the above points may help you decide. What other factors do you think are important?
About two thirds of small businesses using online marketing in some way say that new customers find them through search engines. Would you agree that is a key way that customers find you? If so, what are you doing about your search engine results?
The American Express OPEN small business search marketing survey (March 2011) has a number of statsistics to show where small businesses see online marketing impacting their sales.
While it is a list of survey results (yawn, yawn!) it is a summary so easy to read and can give some useful insights for trends within small business which is useful for comparisons and particularly useful if you sell to that sector. My opening questions are also examples of how you can use this information to assess your own online marketing.
Read the report and let me know what you learn from it…
Have you ever had to write something but just can’t find the words to start? 
Many people face this problem, and some find writing a problem every time they try. So here are some sure fire ways to get yourself writing when it seems impossible…
I will do another blog post on setting things up to reduce the risk of writers block, but for now stop reading and start writing!
There is a move to increase the basic super contribution rate for employers on behalf of their employees, taking it from 9% to 12% (in a few increments).
The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, AIST, (and others I believe) have an online petition to show the Government the concept has the support of the general population.
Do you support it?
Maybe you haven’t even thought about it so here are a couple of my ideas on the topic:
From a purely super point of view, I totally agree with moving the minimum to 12%; from an overall perspective, I’m not so sure what is best and will need to read up on the potential impact – and I’d love to hear some different opinions from business owners, too.
While a school essay is not the same as writing for a business or website, I wanted to recommend this great blog post I just read about writing school essays. 
The post is aimed at parents trying to help students learn about writing a good essay – and it gives good tips (like SEXI paragraphs!)
Many of the concepts can also be carried into other forms of non-fiction writing. For instance, planning what you will put in a promotional article, blog post, report, flyer or similar still saves a lot of time and worry.
Have a read of their post and let me know what you think…
SEXI paragraphs contain:
Statement
Explanation
eXample
Importance
Which term do you use and prefer?
Traditionally, people would send an announcement to the newspapers to share news so it became known as a press release.
With the introduction of radio and TV, press releases had more uses than just newspapers; now, if you have news to share you may send it to any combination of newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, websites and newsletters.
The term media release covers all forms of media so seems more appropriate in most circumstances now than a press release. I certainly consider that I write media releases, but I am comfortable talking to people who still use ‘press release’.
I wonder if age or work background impact much on which name people use – what do you think?
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