America’s SBDC Blog

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How to tackle technology issues when you don’t have IT staff

January 9, 2013

Many small businesses can’t afford or may not even require full time IT staff, but that doesn’t mean technology challenges don’t arise.

Fortunately, there are many ways for small businesses to access IT expertise even without a full time technology expert on the payroll. Educating yourself on basic technology issues that affect small businesses can go a long way toward helping you navigate IT problems that arise.

Many Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) offer free or low-cost technology training. You can also look into what other local business organizations and chambers of commerce have on tap in the realm of technology training.

Some of the responsibility that comes from managing your IT resources also can be relieved by transitioning from on-premise to cloud-based solutions for email, productivity and collaboration tools. Using cloud-based solutions means you access your technology infrastructure online rather than deploying software and physical servers in your office. (more…)

Get Your PPC Account In Shape for 2013

January 7, 2013

Make sure your year gets off to a great start by doing a quick audit on your search marketing campaigns. Here are a few quick ways to improve the health of any AdWords account:

1. Use separate campaigns to target search, display and mobile ads

When you create a new campaign in AdWords, it will show your ads on the Google Display Network (GDN) by default. While this is a great place to find more customers, you should have separate campaigns for showing your ads on search results pages and on GDN so that you can take advantage of the best practices for each. Also create separate campaigns for ads that appear on mobile phones so you can point users to your mobile landing pages.

2. Ad groups should have multiple ads and under 20 keywords

If you’re frequently editing your account, its structure can get out of shape. Ideally all ad groups will have at least 2 ad text variations and no more than 20 keywords. When you have multiple ad texts, Google can automatically show the best performing one to get you more clicks and conversions so it’s a good idea to always be testing multiple ad variations. If you find an ad group with too many keywords, chances are you can split it into smaller ad groups where you can create ads that are more relevant to their keywords. (more…)

How to Get Your Business Online

December 28, 2012

Eric Spellmann continues to be one of the highest rated speakers at our national America’s SBDC conferences. His unique view that small business websites should “do” something pushes against the standard “online pamphlet” view of most web design companies. He believes your customer’s websites should be driving qualified leads and sales on a weekly basis. Eric speaks at a number of other national and state conferences nationwide, but enjoys running one of the most successful companies in the country. He truly believes in the SBDC mission as it helped him start his own company many years ago. To contact him, visit his website at ericspellman.com.

Managing Millennials: A Crash Course

December 27, 2012

If you are struggling to make the most out of your relationships with Millennial employees, here is a quick guide to turning those born between 1980 and 1992 into some of your biggest fans and assets.

Communicating: Veterans like face-to-face meetings, boomers like phone calls, Generation X prefers email, and Millennials do most of their communicating via cell phone, text messages, and social media. Millenials’ interpersonal skills and presentation skills often need work. But be open to letting them develop relationships through the channels they’re most comfortable with. Their informality can often lead to more frequent contact and faster relationship building.

Recruiting: When you set out to hire younger workers, consider your employer brand. What does your company stand for? What are your values? Young people want to work with those they like and companies they believe in. Also understand that what they learn about your company online—from LinkedIn, your website, or customer reviews on Yelp—will shape their opinions and interests. (more…)

Effective online marketing techniques by business type.

December 27, 2012

Online marketing is a critical component of making your business successful in this day and age where 97% of internet-connected consumers go online to research services and products. But with so many ways to market yourself online, you may be suffering from analysis paralysis… so to get you started, here is the top action item I recommend depending on your type of business.

If you’re a local business and you see your customers face-to-face, either when they walk into your location, or because you go and see them at theirs, the #1 thing to do is take control over your listing in online directories. That means claiming your Local listing with all the big search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Once you’ve claimed your listing, here are the top things you should do: (more…)