The Business Source is Your Resource

 

One of the main reasons I started The Business Source LLC in 2008 was that small and medium sized companies were facing dire straits with the recession coming on strong. When sales plummet and people stop buying where do you go for help?

What do I do first? Do I focus on my sales training? My sales process? My sales people? Which way do I look to get sales moving in a profitable direction?

Should I change my advertising? Should I provide a better customer experience? Should I work on some innovative ideas to make my product or service even better than the competition? Should I make changes to my website?

Should I try direct mail? Outdoor?

All these options are expensive, especially if they don’t work.

As a business owner where can you turn for honest advice, counsel and what might work best to boost sales?

Most business owners start making calls, or start taking meetings with sales people who have a “solution” to your sales problem.

To fully evaluate all your options you might have to meet with 3, 4 or more sales reps. Who can you believe? Who can you trust? Isn’t their motivation to sell their product first? You just happen to be the lucky business owner.

Or you can call The Business Source. We’re really good at helping you find the right solution without taking all those sales calls and meetings. We work with many business owners and understand markets and consumers. We’ll recommend the best strategy for you, not what’s best for me as the sales person who wants you to buy my product.

We’re independent. We’re objective. And we only want what’s best for you.

The next time you ask yourself, “what can I do to help increase my sales and bottom line profits?”

Call or email John at The Business Source LLC. john@thebusinesssourcellc.com (608) 445-7462

We’ll get you started heading in a better direction. You’ll begin to see results immediately. And we’ll help you craft a long-term plan that is focused on you and your company first.

Content Attraction

Business Coaching

 

Last week we talked about why social media for small business is no longer a question. As we have transitioned into the age of the attention economy the question comes up about how to get content in front of the audience we want to see it.

“Attention is a resource- a person only has so much of it.” Matthew Crawford

As a small business owner you want to attract prospects, convert them into customers and keep them coming back.

Your goal is to create awareness with value and make sure that your solution meets the buyer’s need. Know what they need before they even need it by putting yourself into the consumers head. What problems are they facing and how can I help them solve those problems.

To be successful on social media you have to be active, watching out for what people are saying and asking in your field. That is when you direct them to solutions first and then once they show interest, to your material to help them make an informed decision. In order to do this you must be consistently curating and sharing information. Make sure when communicating with prospects via social media, you inform them about the resources your business has to offer.

Converting prospects into customers is all about building trust. With social media the content you create has to show proof that the customer will meet their goal. For example, a case study proves that others have had success with your product or solution. In turn, this shows that your solution provides more value than another solution the prospect has looked into.

Now, to keep your customers coming back you have to support them by creating content that supports and teaches customers how to solve their problem. You can use social media as a customer-service tool by answering questions directly rather than diverting them to tech support phone call or email, which is not the most convenient for the customer or efficient for you.

The next step after you start to create an audience with your content is social engagement, developing relationships using social media to develop trust, turning your prospects that much closer to the sales conversion.

Thanks for learning with us! Next Thursday we’ll go into depth on social engagement.

Why Social Media?

Business Coaching

 

For years it has been a question for many small business owners whether or not social media is a worthwhile investment. Now, it’s no longer a question if you should be using social media, but how to use it effectively to increase sales for your business. People think social media is free, and it’s not. It costs either time or money and the time it takes to become knowledgeable about what and how to use this new marketing platform.

Do you want to connect with a wider audience? Do you want to build better customer relationships with people that have not done business with you before?

Are you wondering how to use social media to market your business and drive sales?

As a small business owner you may not have the seemingly unlimited funds and resources to create the volume of content that big businesses have, so your approach has to be different, CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE IN A WAY THAT PUTS YOUR CUSTOMERS FIRST. Take into account that you want to create a loyal following that supports what you do and will be sustainable.

Social media for small business is all about creating trust with value. Building your brand awareness and helping your customers should be your number one goal if you want to see your business grow over time.

Building your brand does not happen over night, it is a process that takes consistency but will return great results if  you stick with it. We at The Business Source want to walk you through this process. Our first series is going to be the social marketing process.

This is a multi – step process. We’re in the age of the Attention Economy!

Creating and writing quality content is the most important aspect of a great digital marketing foundation. Consider these essentials when planning your social media marketing program.

  • Content Attraction – How to get someone to be attracted to your posts.
  • Social Engagement – How to keep your audience interested in your information.
  • Sales Conversion – How to help your prospects become customers.

 

Next week Thursday we’ll talk more about Content Attraction. Thanks for learning with us!

New Social Media Marketing Manager

Business Coaching

 

I’m excited to announce that I’ve been selected as the new Social Media Marketing Manager with The Business Source LLC. Hi I’m Brandon Kappel. As a recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin Madison I am excited to what my future holds helping companies create, develop and execute social media marketing campaigns.

This position for me is much more then a job, I see it as a way to express myself in something that I have a passion for. The use of social media has allowed me to create a brand for myself and I want to take what I have learned to assist small businesses and people reach their goals.

If you asked me 4 years ago what I wanted to be doing someday as a career, I would have told you something along the lines of athletic training or exercise science. Although fitness is still a huge passion in my life, I stumbled upon social media/ digital marketing.

I saw the influence it has had for people and businesses to really express who they are. Going into my junior year at UW Madison I knew that what I wanted, was to pursue a career in marketing. Ever since then I have immersed myself into everything I can to develop my understanding of creating well-rounded social media and digital marketing strategies in a unique way.

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