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The Benefits of a Viral Video- Besides Money

Marketing has changed substantially over the past few decades. Advertising has stepped out of the traditional arena of television, radio and billboards and infiltrated the all reaching world of the Internet. Marketers can use methods like social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and many others to get their message out there. One of the most powerful marketing tools to have emerged, however, is online video marketing.The Power of Video Marketing Blogs

It’s an absolute necessity for every business, corporation, entrepreneur or anyone else hoping to gain exposure to have a video marketing blog. Some individuals ask why it’s simply not enough to run television ad campaigns since they’re making videos anyway. The answer is quite simple: exposure. Television commercials are now easily skipped using digital video recorders (DVR), but this, of course, isn’t the only reason.

Most traditional marketing techniques, such as television advertisements, are referred to as “outbound marketing”. This means that marketers are throwing their advertisements out at absolutely everyone with the hope that a few will pay attention. Online marketing blogs, on the other hand, are a type of inbound marketing that entices people to seek them out. A person who actively searches for a company’s content is much more likely to convert than one who just happens to catch a commercial.

Video blog marketing also helps a company build authority, but it’s important that they’re posting the right types of videos. The majority of people are most captivated by videos that offer value. These marketing videos are usually educational. A bait and tackle shop, for instance, could post a video entitled: How to clean a Catfish. This type of video is informative, not overly zealous and even has the potential of going viral.

How Videos go Viral and their Benefits

One of the most powerful factors involved in video marketing is the opportunity to go viral. One company, for instance, that sells blenders decided to start a sort of video marketing blog. It is an ongoing series entitled “Will it Blend?” and showcases their blenders blending several different types of objects (ie. iPods, and other blenders). The campaign skyrocketed the company to success, and their latest video produced over 160,000 views in only four weeks.

There are a few things involved in making a video go viral. The most important factor is that the video must be shareable. This means that someone who watches the video must be tempted to share it with all of their friends. It’s also important that these videos target the right audience. This can be done by using social media and SEO (keyword targeting is especially important). Both of these methods will help increase a video’s exposure and move it up on search rankings.

Viral videos have numerous benefits for a company that’s lucky enough to produce them. The most obvious benefit is exposure. Many viral videos end up having millions of views. An often overlooked benefit, however, is the low investment cost that viral videos and video marketing in general have. The amount of exposure that a viral video can get makes the price of producing them negligible.

Anyone out there with even a small amount of advertising knowledge knows that online video promotion is an absolute necessity in any marketing campaign. The sheer reach that the videos can have is astonishing. With minimal investment, an individual can enlist the services of a marketing video production company and have promotional material that will consistently show a good return on investment (ROI). Plus, if a video is produced well and manages to go viral, the sky is the limit on how much profit the company will turn on their investment.

An art business owner, author Ann Bailey relays these viral video tips for those looking for the best strategies for their advertising. The Washington DC metro firm of 522 Productions acts behind the scenes to help businesses with a video marketing blog by working out all the design, shooting, and editing steps.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebluewig/5775583280/

3 Great Initial Investments for Small Businesses

Some may say that a business is only as good as the tools it uses. If you don’t start out with some form of efficiency, you could be doomed to fail. There are several initial investments you could purchase in order to start your business off on the right foot. While you don’t have to spend a great deal of money to provide stability, an investment of some kind is still required for immediate success in specific areas.

startup investments — photo credit: brianfling via photopin cc

1. Quickbooks – For the small business, Quickbooks can be one of your greatest assets. Not only does this program provide tracking for your bank accounts, but it also handles a large amount of your business practices. Inventory control, payroll, bills, and more can be tracked from Quickbooks providing a wide range of reports to help you analyze what areas your business needs to improve on.

Taxes and end-of-year business can be easily compiled and printed without putting much effort into it. As long as you entered the data correctly throughout the year, taxes could take you a fraction of the time and 1099s could be quickly produced for any contract labor you employed.

2. Computer Network – Having a computer network should go without saying. As nearly everything we do in today’s world requires access to the Internet, having a computer system can save a great deal of time and money. However, does your small business need an expensive server and network in order to function?

A file server could be beneficial if your organization uses a lot of files that need to be shared with one-another. For this purpose, a small $600 desktop server would suffice. Essentially, these servers are nothing more than a regular computer with a server software installed on it. It may not be a bad idea to increase the hard drive size as much as possible, but a file server doesn’t need to have a lot of power behind it.

For a small business, gigabit Ethernet capabilities are more of a luxury that shouldn’t be required. Again, this could greatly depend on the type of business you are starting. The basic 10/100 Ethernet network is far cheaper to build now-days and could serve your business purposes well. Unless you are planning to hammer the network bandwidth using a lot of streaming content, game playing, or other function that requires faster speeds you should save your money.

3. Website – As a large amount of people use smartphones to search for local businesses, you should have a website with all of your products and services described in detail. For less than $120 per year, you could have a website that could generate its own income or simply provide information about your business.

If you’re not interested in hosting eCommerce, your website could still serve a purpose to supply information to potential customers. With enough content, your website could generate revenue with Adsense by receiving money for hosting advertisements of other companies. There is a great deal of potential with a website and if nothing more, it can serve as a great way to advertise your business to the local community.

Although you can still start your business without any of the above tools, they are still a very wise investment. They can save you time, money, and stress from having to alter your methods of conducting business. As long as you track every dime and where it is spent, you can have a handle on how your business functions.

Author Bio: Nancy provides feedback on all elements of the site “www.enannysource.com” helping us to really make sure that we are making it as easy as possible for caregivers to sign up and find work. In addition, she spends quite a bit of her time on freelance writing tasks.

How Important is Hosting for a Small Business?

As a small business owner, you already understand that your business needs a great website. You may understand SEO and the principles of great content and finely-tuned usability.

However, website hosting is also crucial. Hosting underpins your website; it makes the process of maintaining your website easier and ensures it’s always available when customers visit. Choosing the wrong host can be an expensive mistake.

web servers — photo credit: Tom Raftery via photopin cc

With so many plans on offer, how do you make the crucial decision and pick the best web hosting package?

The Importance of the Right Plan

On a very basic level, there are three types of hosting: site builder hosting, shared hosting and VPS/ dedicated hosting. As the price increases, so do the resources (and, in some cases, the quality of support).

It’s essential to choose a website hosting package. You need a service that supports your business without adding unnecessary admin to your daily workload.

Types of Hosting

Site builder tools are fine for many small businesses, particularly when they’re just starting up, but they’re inherently limited. Site builders are browser-based tools that offer templated designs and pre-set widgets.

An upgrade to shared hosting will be needed if you’ve engaged a website designer (or plan to in the future). Shared hosting is also more suitable if you wish to use a popular script like WordPress.

The type of hosting you choose will also affect the price. Costs vary greatly, from a few dollars a month right through to dedicated server packages costing hundreds (or thousands) of dollars a year. Also, you’ll notice that many web hosts offer discounts for hosting plans taken out over a longer term. This is effectively a contract lock-in, and if you don’t know how well the host performs, this lock-in could be a false economy.

Looking Ahead

Before parting with your money, it’s wise to closely examine the terms of the host’s money-back guarantee; if you want to move your website midterm for any reason, a money-back guarantee will ensure you don’t wind up paying for web hosting twice.
If you’re not sure about the resources you need, ensure your web host offers free upgrades. You’re then free to start with the most affordable package. Even if you outgrow the resources on your plan, you’ll be able to scale up effortlessly – and with zero downtime in most cases. This is usually better than over-committing to hosting that will drain your bank account unnecessarily.

The Importance of Availability

It’s important that a business website is available around the clock – or as near to that as possible. That’s why web hosts almost always provide some kind of uptime guarantee.

These guarantees are designed to protect website owners against faults at the data centre which can cause their website to become available.

Checking the Uptime Guarantee

Hosts that offer 100 per cent uptime are rare, and generally more expensive, but they do exist. However, it’s far more common to see 99 per cent uptime guarantees. (Remember: 99 per cent uptime actually allows for up to 3 days’ downtime per year.) Look for the best uptime guarantee you can afford.
Check the terms carefully. Many hosts offer account credits for prolonged downtime, but how easy is to claim? Would the credit compensate your business adequately – and is there a catch?

The Importance of the Right Hosting Provider

There are thousands of web hosting providers battling for custom from small business owners, and that can make the buying decision complex and tedious. Impartial hosting company ratings and host user reviews offer a shortcut, making it far easier to select the right plan.

Before signing up for any web host, check web host reviews from users carefully. Examine the specifications for your chosen plan, then compare host ratings and check the small print for each one.

Finally, don’t forget to look for webhost user reviews that are relatively recent. Web hosting providers occasionally change hands, and that can affect the quality of service customers experience. A stale webhost user review is unlikely to be as accurate as a current, up-to-date user review.

About the Author: Claire is a creative content writer working for WhoIsHostingThis.com, an independent hosting review website.

Is Your Business Wired Into Success?

With the New Year coming, what on your list have you checked twice to see if this year has found your small business naughty or nice?

If your customer service habits need a little improving around the edges, one of the ways to do this is by offering consumers more options to pay for their products and/or services. Quite specifically, having a wireless credit card machine gives you the opportunity to conduct more business at an efficient and quicker pace than your standard traditional landline option.

For those who may be new to such devices, they have shown to make more customers buy on impulse for starters, something that you as a small business owner can’t complain about.

wireless payment — Image by justin / Flickr

In order to find the right wireless credit card machine for your small business, consider:

How it works

With such a device, you slide the customer’s credit card through the machine, inputting the amount of the sale. The terminal hooks up with a radio tower, transmitting the credit card data and total bill. Once the processor has the details, they are passed along to the financial institution which provided the card. After the card is determined to be valid and the sought after amount for the transaction is deemed available, the amount of purchase is set aside for the business owner. At the time the settlement process is undertaken, the funds are moved from the card provider and deposited into the business owner’s checking account, typically within 48 hours from the original transaction;

Shop around

You wouldn’t buy from an office supply company without checking them out, nor would you purchase office furniture from a company without reviewing them. The same holds true with your wireless credit card machine purchase and network provider selection. Review a handful of companies to see who offers the best product and service at the best price, who is financially stable, and who has a track record that is void of large numbers of customer complaints. Also, take note that a number of merchants selling used terminals may not know the network the terminal works on;

Know the fees and terms of conditions

The last thing you want to do is sign up with a provider who will hit you with various fees, not to mention make it difficult to get out of a contract if need be. Make sure you know up front what fees are for both hardware and service, thereby avoiding shock when your first merchant statement bill arrives. It is also usually wiser to go with a shorter term agreement with the provider to test them out and see if you are happy with both the product and service;

Plan ahead

Finally, make sure you plan ahead when going for a wireless credit card machine and provider. If you do business on the road and/or at trade shows, you don’t want a nasty surprise that your wireless product is not ready to go the day you need it. In the event you operate a seasonal small business, let your provider know that your business has busy and slow periods during the year. Among other things, this helps negate the idea that a sudden amount of activity is the result of a swiped terminal.

If doing more business is one of your prime goals for 2013, adding a wireless credit card machine may be the best gift you can give yourself.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers small business topics for various websites, including finding the right wireless credit card machine for your company.

The Wrong Payroll Solution for Your Small Business Doesn’t Pay

As a small business owner, what holds you up most at work?

If meeting your payroll needs on time has become an issue for you, what do you plan to do about it going into the New Year?

Payroll is one of if not the most important issues a small business owner must deal when employing others. Whether they are full-time, part-time or freelance employees, it is a no-brainer that workers want to get paid and paid on time at that.

So, if you are finding payroll to be an issue for your small business, is outsourcing it the right call to make?

When you find the right payroll provider, you can take the time and effort that you or one of your employees were doing to meet payroll and direct it elsewhere. Finding that right provider, however, can take some doing.

Among the things to look for in a payroll provider are:

Dependability – First and foremost, have you ever dealt with your workers not getting their paychecks on time? It can oftentimes lead to reduced effort on the job, not to mention disgruntled employees if it happens too often. By outsourcing your payroll needs to the right payroll service, you lessen the chances of errors happening on your watch for starters. Any well-run payroll service provider can easily cut checks or handle direct deposit, make sure your taxes are properly covered (see below), and handle items such as health insurance and 401k deductions;

Taxes – One of the biggest fears any small business owner has is getting a letter from the IRS, stating that the company’s taxes are off. With the right payroll provider handling your finances, you can make sure that the proper payroll tax deductions were made each pay period, and that W-2’s and 1099s are properly handled. Keep in mind, however, that you as the employer still maintain the final responsibility for the proper deposit and payments of all federal, state and local tax liabilities, not the payroll provider;

Direct deposit – While some employees still prefer a paper check, many workers in today’s fast-paced world like the money to go right into their bank accounts via direct deposit. Not only does this cut down on the paper expense, but it saves you from having to have checks mailed to your office, with the potential of course for being late or misplaced. Many payroll providers are happy to oversee direct deposit for your workers, making it one less thing for you to worry about;

Staying up to speed on changes – It is not uncommon for there to be changes in regulations, withholding rates and forms. As a result, do you really have time as a small business owner to review all of them? A payroll service provider has the time and the knowledge to deal with such changes, meaning your payroll will be handled according to the most recent rules and regulations;

Timing – With the New Year right around the corner, going with a payroll provider in 2013 could make it easier for both you and your workers. You start a new year off with a new service, you are up to speed on any new rules that oftentimes commence at the start of a new calendar year, and you can start saving money over the long haul by outsourcing your payroll needs;

Referrals – Last but not least, how will you go about finding the right payroll provider? Online searches and referrals are two good roads to travel. Make sure that each provider you look at is properly licensed and bonded, has a track record of proven customer service, does not come up under searches for numerous customer complaints with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and most importantly, go over their fees. It is not uncommon for providers to charge per payroll check, along with a base account expense. With potential add-on costs, know what you will be financially responsible for before agreeing to any contract. Also, check to see if the provider has a security system in place so that no employees end up having personal data such as salaries and Social Security numbers compromised.

If you have been thinking about switching to a payroll provider, it could pay off in more ways than one for your small business.

About the Author: Dave Thomas covers small business topics for various websites, including why companies should consider payroll outsourcing.