Used with websites, business cards and other media, brochures are powerful marketing tools that can net you more customers.  If you use them right your customers are likely to keep these leaflets and come back for your products, but if you do it wrong you’ll soon find them inside the closest garbage can near your establishment.  Yikes!

To avoid such disasters read on for some guidelines on how to make good brochures.

1.       First Page Presentation is Key

The first page has to attract the customer to read on and should have a good resolution image with the product being advertised.   Do not use clipart or low resolution images as this turns off your customers and doesn’t look very professional.  Lead your customers to read on with a few benefits of the product or catchy thought provoking statements with the company name on the first page.  If its in your budget you may even alter its shape and folding to make it stand out more.

2.       Know Your Customers Wants

A good practice before you write anything down is to empathize with your customer and think about what they want to know (e.g. how to open a savings account, product features, degree programs offered, special offers for the holiday season, etc.).  Once identified create your brochure with the answers to those questions in mind or use them as the theme.

3.       Make it Easy to Read

Avoid using many technical terms, formal tones and walls of text as these put off your customers.  Use simple layman’s language as not all customers are experts on the product and set an informal tone when writing to connect with your customer as this shows that you value their patronage.  If you have to put in some long text about the business make sure that it involves the customer in some way to keep them interested.  In addition, if you have to enumerate the exact technical details of the product, immediately follow through with its benefits, of course, presented in a manner they understand.

4.       Make your Brochures Short, Simple and Direct to the Point

You can only fit so much information on a leaflet so it’s best to keep your content short and simple.  Do this by focusing on a specific product, feature or service for your brochures and don’t drag on about the company or business for too long.  Use headings, bullets and numbered lists and keep paragraphs to a minimum.  Remember that too much information only serves to confuse your customer.

5.       Direct your Customers to a Desired Action

To end a leaflet you must direct the customer to respond in a specific way.  A common mistake when writing content is to enumerate all the details without even writing the company contact information or describing how to avail of what is being advertised.  Some ways to end a brochure is by directing your customer to call your office number, send an email, go to the company website or drop by the office for hands on demonstration of the product.

Julian Kim works for Vionetgraphics.com.  Vionetgraphics provides services such Media Planning and Strategy and Sales Brochures.

In a nutshell, SEO is all about getting a higher rank in search engine results, and of course that means more traffic, more leads, and ultimately more sales on the back end. Most large websites do the majority of their business with traffic coming from search engines, so you can get an idea of how important it is.

No matter what your level of experience with SEO may be, it’s always possible to get started with some of the basics. After all, everything has to start somewhere. Here are a few basics that will help you get started with your own SEO efforts on the right foot. Remember, if you never get started you’ll never get anywhere.

Monitor Everything

The only way to know if anything is working the way it should with SEO is to keep track of all the important analytic metrics. One of the most important metrics is a traffic overview. This gives you a broad but decent idea of how much your website traffic has increased since you began implementing your SEO tactics. But that’s not always enough. Another vital metric to keep track of it where your visitors are coming from, and if they’re arriving at your site through search engines, you need to know what keywords they’re searching for to get there. One of the best and easiest to use free tools for this is Google Analytics, but you can also get updates from Alexa or other services.

Use Keywords Wisely

Keywords go a long way when used right, but can actually hold you back if used incorrectly. The right way to use keywords is in your site content, including the page headings, but without overusing them to the point where the content looks artificial. This is known as keyword stuffing – stuffing random keywords into the middle of your text in the interests of attracting search engines. If there’s one thing Google knows though, it’s how to spot overtly fake keyword usage, and they will punish your site for doing it.

Link to Everything

One of the most powerful SEO tools that is still in use today is a process known as backlinking. Backlinks are hyperlinks on other, related websites that direct traffic back to your own main site. These can come from blogs, forums, or advertisements, but what they do is show to search engines that you are popular enough for other people to link to you. If Google feels that a website is popular, they’ll boost them in the search engine rankings because it stands to reason that they must be providing informative, high quality content. It’s also good to use your keywords as the anchor text in your backlinks, but that’s a subject for another post.

Erin Smith has years of experience in SEO field and she is a specialist focusing about the basics and needs for small business owner. If you want to know more about her articles on 247virtualassistant or her blogs related to SEO please visit her website 247virtualassistant.com

Offer Marketing Tools to Generate Attendee Interest

One of the most effective ways to promote your goals is to get participants interested in actively supporting your local business through simple marketing tools.  You may offer a give-away, a raffle, or another contest to lure in your target trade show audience. Clearly define what you will be offering to your target group before you get to the event to help guarantee their interest in your products or services.

Be Sure to Promote Your Attendance at the Trade Show via ‘External’ Channels

When you have decided on an appropriate attack to catch your targeted trade show audience, it is important that you market it properly.   You will need to decide what literature you will present, in addition to what social media outlets you will advertise your participation with. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are also fantastic ways to get the word out. You will need to let as many people as you know about your participation in a trade show. A local business that uses social media outlets as marketing tools are more likely to draw in the masses of consumers. Posting statuses, updates, videos, and commentary on these sites while you’re at the tradeshow can only add to the number of visitors you see at you booth, as well.

Also, don’t forget that most trade shows will have some sort of advertising included in the price of your booth.  Take advantage of this to make certain that you are not spending your advertising dollars unwisely.

The Old Schools Tools that Still Work – Business Cards and Hand Outs

It may seem archaic, but hand outs and business cards are a great way to accomplish reaching your marketing goals.  People are visual beings, and having something they can see, especially at a later date after they leave the trade show, could prove invaluable to your local business. Make sure you are addressing your clear goals in the hand outs, and do not forget to include all of you contact information.  It is important that people be able to reach you with questions, concerns, or to purchase your products and services!

Whatever way you choose to advertise your participation at the trade show, make sure they are user friendly.  You and your local business will want to create as little work to your customer as possible. Be certain to include pleasing photos and witty text on your hand outs and in other advertisements to draw in the biggest audience. Make sure that the trade show host is including some sort of advertising for your local business in their announcements as well. Lastly, you will need to appeal to current consumers as well as potential ones. Don’t leave anyone out. If you do all of these things, your attendance at the trade show will definitely generate the leads and visibility for your business that you’re targeting.

Chris Marentis is an expert in the field of local online marketing. Through his company, Surefire Social, Chris leverages website development, search engine optimization, and social media marketing to generate leads and build brands across the web.

Where to Start?

Research your competitors. What is their branding like? How will you be different? Are there certain colours, fonts, or images which would suit what you offer?

You really need to list exactly what you want your branding to be. It’s almost like finding yourself. How do you want people to perceive your business? Is it supposed to be a fun brand? If so bright colours and a relaxed font would work best,  for example.

Ask your friends and family what look would suit your company. It sometimes helps having advice from someone who is not involved in the business. It can be more focused and honest.

Budgeting for Your New Brand…

Larger companies can afford branding companies. They can take care of designing logos, assigning colour schemes, fonts and layouts for your new brand and will come up with a few options for you to look at, and then develop these designs further, until you are happy with the finished result.

Chances are you are a small business or a self starter looking for branding help at a budget. With the research you have gathered from looking at how your competitors have branded themselves, make a clear and concise list of key points you want your brand to be.

For example: I want the colours to be warm greens and  blues, my jewellery products are based upon nature so my brand must hint to this, I want it to feel artistic, not too corporate, it must be fun, relaxed and give the impression that everything is handmade. I want my company to have a natural and memorable title which will relate to my nature inspired jewellery, a single word so it is catchy, easy to spell, and memorable, but not used by another company etc.

By gathering your thoughts in one place, you can then seek help from a designer, and they will know exactly what you want, so it will save time going through several wrong designs, which will cost you more and more money. It is worth approaching graduate designers, or undergraduate designers. They need to develop their portfolio and will not cost too much. Some might offer to do it for free if you can agree a deal.

The key to a new brand is research. Carry out surveys from your existing customers, friends and family, look at your competitors, and constantly list your discoveries so you can clearly sift through your feedback and thoughts and clearly decide what your brand will be.

About the author: Kirsten works for WhoIsHostingThis? She works within a team to gather customer ratings based upon website hosting experiences. Some of the companies they review include HostPapa.com allowing users to look at peoples experiences with a wide range of hosting companies.

Think about what the internet has done for business. If you owned a business 20 years ago, you relied on your sales force and your marketing team to travel, make phone calls, knock on people’s doors, or whatever it took to let people know your company existed.

Fast forward to 2012, and there are almost too many marketing methods to keep up with. This is a good thing though, people. It can be a bit overwhelming, but it’s about finding what works for you and your business…you don’t have to use all of them.

The main thing is to make sure that you have a website. I don’t care what industry you’re in…you need to be online. This is your “billboard”. Except, instead of only being seen by commuters gridlocked on the interchange (and hoping that they remember your brand and contact info), you can be seen by any one of the 2.3 billion internet users in the world (according to http://www.internetworldstats.com) on a given day. That’s nearly one third of the world’s population versus one third of your city.

Ok, so your local bakery business may not care if people in another state or on another continent, for that matter, find your website. However, the internet has become the new phone book as well. Is there anyone that actually references the phone book anymore (aside from my parents)? When I see that 5-inch thick mess of pages outside my front door, I kindly pick it up off the ground and properly place it into my recycling bin. I think we have finally reached the point in time where there are more people in the world that consult Google, than flip through their local phone book…and that number will only continue to grow.

Ok, enough of my rant. My point is that instead of paying a good chunk of money for a your name, address and phone number in a size 6 font to be listed in a book, a website allows you to have all of that, and more. You have the opportunity to include a map to your business, hours of operation, a write-up about your company, pictures, a menu of your products or services, and even some reviews from past customers.

You also have access to free social media networks, like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest to expand your reach and have a more personal connection with your audience.

Having your website found is another obstacle, and outsourcing your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) can be costly, but know that there are plenty of low-cost avenues out there as well.

Look at the internet for what it is. We have the ability to shift from an undesirable location to prime virtual real estate, without “physical” relocation. It allows us to expand our marketing efforts, connect with our customers and personalize our brands. Learn it, use it and (try to) love it.

John Ehlenbeck is a small business owner, and contributing writer for Aprimo Marketing Automation Software.

These days no one makes a decision without first doing some research online. That goes for things in every part of life, a good mechanic, a new doctor, and even a new hair salon. The importance of being easily accessible and available to the new-age internet consumer is a very valuable tool for your small business, one that should not be overlooked or under developed, mainly due to a lack of experience in the field.

Online advertising is not the easiest thing for some business owners to understand. Depending on the business, you could be doing the farthest thing from it, but that doesn’t make the importance of marketing your business online any less needed, especially now when all of your competitors are doing the same.

Look For Additional Help

By seeking additional help from either an outside contractor, or hiring someone to work for you directly, you can quickly see how much it will benefit your business without having to sacrifice any of your time, specifically. By turning your salon marketing over to a skilled individual or firm, you can ensure that you are receiving all of the benefits of a successful campaign while you focus on the parts of your business that you are more familiar and comfortable with.

You will not only be able to expand your client base, but you will also be able to make them more knowledgeable along the way, with access to your web site and all that it says about your business. For new and old customers alike, providing them easy access to your web presence will give them a better way to feel connected to you and get a better idea of what you can do for them, and how you can do it better than your competition.

Be Patient Or Get Moving

The lengths that your business can grow with proper beauty salon marketing are only limited by the extent of your patience and willingness to nourish your campaign. If you find someone that understands what it takes to make your business thrive and how to incorporate that into a profitable campaign, then they can be a valuable asset that you can grow with over time.

Just because marketing isn’t your forte, that is no reason to pass up all of the benefits it can produce for your business. A good marketing plan can be the difference between success and failure, and in the end, it could be what elevates your business to new heights.

Salon Marketing Pros provide a variety of salon/spa marketing tools needed for hair salon websites marketing or for barber shops. They also are great at creating highly effective custom salon websites.

Image by ShortcutsUSA

There are many theories as to why happy staff equate to a productive business, and I will endeavour to expand on this by considering what I believe to be the five most obvious.

Job Satisfaction

Firstly, happy people find it easier to attain satisfaction with their job. This will invariably lead to a sense of accomplishment which allows them to feel really involved in the business. They will almost feel as if they have a personal stake in the enterprise, which, in turn, will motivate them to be more productive. This will give them greater satisfaction – and the whole process will begin again. This feeling of being involved, and the perception of having a vested interest in the company, leads employees to feel appreciated and encourages them to contribute more of themselves.

Positive Attitudes

Another crucial attribute of happy employees is their positive attitude, which generates optimism. Optimism can be very infectious. It will lead to much better cooperation and teamwork, and, inevitably, boost productivity. Communication skills will be improved, and this will inevitably result in a reduction of inter-staff and staff-management disputes.
If an employee is happy, the chances are that he will have a great deal of energy. This will, in turn, translate to enthusiasm and efficiency, both of these being very infectious. This will be yet another positive step towards optimum productivity. Enthusiasm and efficiency are the perfect fuels to increase performance.

Sick Leave

It is also reasonable to assume that a worker who is content with their working day is much less likely to go off on sick leave. Leaving aside real, physical ailments, there is no motivation to look for excuses to take the day off sick. He will be more than willing to be where he is most comfortable and fulfilled – at work.
My final argument in favour of the value of happy employees comes down to hard cash. These people are much more likely to stay in the job. The process of advertising for, and recruiting replacement staff is one of the most expensive exercises that any business will undertake. If you have contented, settled staff members, there is a good chance that this will not be a road you travel too often.
In conclusion, keeping your staff happy is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your business. It really is a win-win situation, with increased productivity, a better workplace atmosphere, and a drastically reduced staff turnover. Keeping your staff happy is a policy that should be implemented by every business owner – both for their own benefit and for the wellbeing of their staff.

This article was written in association the Badenoch and Clark, leading recruiter for government and council jobs in the UK

The most obvious way to start a business these days without a lot of money is building a website. You should try to concentrate on creating a quality website before you even think about monetizing it because you need to bring in some visitors before you will have anything worth selling on your site.

Another quick way to make some cash is as a consultant. There are plenty of people and businesses who could use some help if you know a lot about a certain topic. Put your knowledge to good use as a consultant if you are not interested in starting a new business of your own.

Housesitting is a new, unique way to earn some cash, and you won’t have to worry about paying rent when you pick up this job. There are plenty of people around the world who need people to watch their homes while they are out of town, and they are even willing to pay you to get the job done. You should start out by watching a few homes in your local area before you move onto bigger and better things.

Watching pets is another way to make some quick cash and get started in a new line of work. If you are someone who loves to look after animals and take care of them, then there should be nothing that can stop you from starting your own petsitting business. Your only costs in the beginning will be on leashes and ads in the local paper.

Become a secretary. There are many business people who do not have time to take phone calls and schedule their appointments during the day, so you should think about becoming someone’s assistant before starting a career of your own.

If you are someone who has sales experience or you think you would be good at making sales for someone else, then you should think about becoming an independent sales representative. There are many companies that make sales through this kind of work, so you will have plenty of options to choose from when it comes to finding a product or service that you can sell.

Becoming a personal assistant is somewhat similar to being a secretary, although you will be required to go out and actually run some errands for your client. This line of work is perfect for someone who wants to learn from someone else who is already in their industry of choice.

You could always become a local advertiser. There is plenty of money to be made from simply printing out flyers and helping people get the word out about their business.

Tutoring is something that can be done  from anywhere in the world. If you are very knowledgeable on a certain school subject, then you should think about tutoring some students either locally or over the Internet.

If you are someone who knows more than one language than you definitely have skills that could lead to some easy cash. Translation jobs are always in high demand in every corner of the globe.

Learning about eBay could turn out to be a great option for you. You can either start selling some of your own products or sell some products for others at a flat rate.

Become a writer. There is always a need for written articles or blogs on various websites, so this is something you can check out if you have a creative gene.

Proofreading is a similar job that you should consider if you are not interested in coming up with your own writings.

Start a lawn care business. Although lawn care is something that people think about when they are in their teenage years, there is nothing wrong with sticking with this kind of work over the long term.

If you are someone who is musically talented then you should think about starting your own production company. Plenty of businesses and recording artists need tracks to lay down jingles or vocals.

Become a social media expert. Many businesses need someone to manage their Facebook and Twitter accounts, and this could be perfect for you if you are someone who already sits on their social media accounts all day.

If you are someone who is very interested in physical fitness and health, then you should think about becoming a personal trainer or diet planner. Plenty of people need help with their bodies these days, and you can definitely help change a few lives if you know what you are doing.

At the end of the day, you just need to find something that interests you. As long as you are doing something you love, you will not have to worry about how much money you are making or your levels of happiness during the day.

This is a post by Smarta, that will help you find the best business idea, and set up a business.

If you want to be healthy, you can’t just eat one very big, very healthy meal. You have to eat in a healthy way most days. You also can’t run one iron man event every year and think you will be in optimum physical condition; you will probably die trying since you are not conditioned properly.

The same principle applies to organization. You have to establish an organization system that you follow on a consistent basis in order to have organization in your life.  Good organization really does make life run smoothly. Unless you have an obsessive compulsive personality and you let the structure of your day take over your life, it is so much easier to get things accomplished when they are organized. Think about all of the hours of your life you spent looking for keys and what you could have done with those lost hours.

Always leave room for some spontaneity in your life, but in general you will be happier and more organized if you:

• - Get up at the same time each day
• - Eat a healthy breakfast each morning
• - Schedule exercise each day
• - Each evening, lay out what you need for the next day
• - Keep a to-do list; you may want one for work and one for home
• - Open your mail in the same place, next to a trash bag (remember, small steps); get rid of all mail that is not important
• - Designate a storage spot for everything, and always put items back in their designated spots. This is one of the simplest, yet most difficult organizational techniques to implement and yet will probably save you accumulated years of searching, fumbling and aggravation.
• - Hang a key holder, and always put your keys there
• - Pay your bills once a week, on a designated day.

- Have a family meal at approximately the same time each day, and clean up right away. This delineates the day and signals that the evening is for homework, relaxing and organizing for the next day. Rushing back and forth between dinner, homework, and partial (and repeated) cleanups wastes time and causes stress.

This is the basic framework of an organized day. You need to incorporate your own lifestyle, hobbies, children’s’ school and sport schedules into it, but you will be amazed at how adding a structure like this to your life will organize and simplify it.

Organizing your day is a lot easier if you have someone to show you how. However; you don’t want anyone unsafe around you or your kids. Check this source for information on how to do a background check.

BS 25999 is a standard looking at business continuity management in every respect, from recessions, to natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods, and even extremes that rarely occur such as bomb attacks. Business continuity management planning can save your business a great deal of money in both the short and long term, and could give you an immediate advantage over competitors in terms of generating extra revenues during times of uncertainty.

A Glowing Endorsement

Achieving a BS 25999 says a lot about your business. Consumers will have a great deal of faith in your business if they recognise you have taken steps to ensure you can still provide a service or product during difficult periods. As well as saving money, this can also help you to establish a customer base for the future and be seen as a dependable, trustworthy business to deal with.

BS 25999 will only work if the relevant systems are in place. This is a key part of the certification process, as demonstrating your ability to implement the plan is just as important as the planning phase itself.

Business Continuity Alternatives

While business continuity management provides one excellent way for businesses to save money through implementing the standards required to achieve BS 25999, it is clearly not the only way.

Simpler, more effective ways to save money include reviewing your outgoing business costs to see where you could make savings, be this in terms of employees, energy bills or property maintenance costs. Ideally, running a lean, efficient business will run alongside having a business continuity management plan in place to ensure that should the worst happen, be it flooding to your premises or acute recession, you are in a great place to maximise your savings and continue trading as a flourishing business.

Exploring the many different ways to save money, whether you do it yourself or through using a consulting agency, will make your business more well-rounded and ultimately healthier in the long term, as well as improving your ability through learning as a business owner and leader.

ISO 27001 Standards is the largest online resource for the implementation of ISO 27001 and BS 25999-2 standards. Bs 25999 certification can save your business money looking at business continuity management in every respect, from recessions, to natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods.