INSTANT SEARCH

Navigation

Tag Archives:
Featured

Advertising Medium, Content Marketing, Customer Experience, Customers, Employees, Entrepreneur, HR, Marketing, Motivation, radio, retention, Small Business, Social Media, Strategy, Uncategorized
0 Reply

Grow Like You Mean It

Jan 5, 2018

“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.”

Benjamin Franklin

For most small business owners, the day-to-day job duties that you have can be so overwhelming that you may think that you don’t have time to ponder, much less execute, the future success of your business. But, as some have pointed out, “failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Now that 2018 is here, it’s the perfect time to begin thinking about what kind of goals you want to achieve and a strategy to achieve them by the year’s end. Here are some suggestions to help you and your small business achieve growth in the new year.

grow

First, begin to leverage your customer base to understand how your business can improve. Your current customers are often the best tools you have to utilize as a growing business. Talk to them. Ask questions on how you can do better or offer a better product.

Secondly, it’s important to have a clear understanding what type of objectives are realistic so that you can start taking bite-sized steps to get there. If you make too much of a stretch goal, you may end up either using too many resources to achieve an unattainable target or get discouraged when you don’t meet it.

Lastly, it’s beneficial to think about what kind of resources are available to help you achieve your goals. Utilizing the support from other professionals in your community is paramount to the success of your growth strategy. At first, it may seem like a challenge, but using all available systems of support will increase the chances of obtaining your definition of success.

Advertising Medium, christian, Customer Experience, Customers, Employees, Entrepreneur, Holiday, Marketing, Motivation, radio, Small Business, Social Media, Song, Strategy, streaming, Uncategorized
0 Reply

Announcing 94.1 The Oasis!

Dec 7, 2017

The Oasis 94.1

To better serve the Charlottesville Metro Area and Central Virginia, we are proud to announce our newest radio station, The Oasis 94.1, “Today’s Christian Hits!”

Pam Garrison, a Program Director, radio personality, and host on 99.7 CYK (and, most currently, The Oasis) is head of the project. Garrison, a radio veteran in the area, is thrilled to be hosting and is excited about the newest offering from Monticello Media.

Oasis

The Oasis is the region’s only local contemporary Christian radio station featuring positive hits with artists such as Casting Crowns, Crowder, Newsboys, Natalie Grant, and Mercy Me.

Contemporary Christian is currently the fastest growing format in radio and boasts the “widest audience appeal among most demographics”– and there aren’t any signs of this trend slowing.

Tune in weekdays from 3-7 pm to connect with Pam, either on your radio or stream online. For a list of upcoming events, be sure to check out our website.

Click here for a list of our radio stations.

Small Business
0 Reply

Google Business Listing – How to and Why

Apr 20, 2017
google business listing

In the world of online search, there has continued to be a shift to mobile.  There is also an increase of local intent in search evident in the rise of “near me” queries.  One way to improve the chances of ranking well as a local business on mobile (as well as desktop) is to make sure that your business has claimed its google business listing.  This is an important step for a local business to take early on in order to improve search visibility.

Why have a Google business listing?

Google is explicit in very few things when it comes to how to improve your site ranking.  However, they are very clear about the importance of Google My Business and how it can be used to help the customer be matched with your business based on their location.  With this in mind, it is important to make sure that all of your information is correct in the listing.  Providing your NAP, number, address and phone number is a good place to start.  Also, having an updated website and as much relevant additional information will help potential customers as well as google’s crawling bots better understand your business.

How do I get set up?

Just Google it! Google does offer great information on how to do this through their help center.  But to make it easy for busy business owners, everything you need to get started can be found right here.

What if I don’t have a physical address?

Many service based small businesses may not have a brick and mortar presence or even a public office.  Google does provide a way to still get listed by providing a service area in place of a physical address.

Tips to consider

Google is not the only place where your business can, should or may appear.  Working with an SEO expert can be helpful to make sure that you are covering the high trafficked directories that are most important for your business.  You do want to make sure that information is accurate and consistent.  Another important thing is to ask for reviews in order to grow positive, helpful and useful information to potential customers.  Make sure to keep on eye on reviews and respond quickly and professionally to any negatives.

Also, check out your competitors.  How are they setting up their listings?  What are the hours they are publishing?  Would an extra half an hour a few days of the week show your business as open when your competitor will appear to be closed?

Finding a business anytime anywhere is getting easier for consumers and in order to compete, your business should be where they are looking.

 

 

 

 

Marketing, Small Business
0 Reply

Should Small Business Owners Do Their Own Digital Marketing?

Feb 15, 2017

digital marketing, small businessBeing a small business owner is hard work. Trust me, I know. You wear a lot of hats — everything from accounting, sales, and marketing to more. However, small business digital marketing…

Read more here: Unique Digital Marketing Tactics: 1 Hour a Day

This article has great suggestions that may take an hour a day for a digital marketing professional. However, the average business owner should be focused on their business and not digital marketing.

What are the digital marketing options for local businesses?

Do it yourself – The business owner has to learn, implement, monitor, optimize their own campaign with their own time.

Outsource – Hire some company that may be helping with directories or just calls from another state and trust them to market with minimal contact or reporting.

Hire an agency – Invest in an agency that will do a great job at a higher price ($1K-$10K+ in MGT fees alone).

Or… Work with us! – We offer a local, personal, customized solution. We will educate the advertiser, prepare and implement your strategy and provide in depth reporting on performance.  This can be done within a lower total budget.  Visit our Online Marketing page for more details.

Content Marketing, Marketing, Small Business
0 Reply

Building a Sticky Brand

Nov 3, 2016
sticky brand, branding your business, building your brand

Brand Building 101

There are many things to consider when a business is developing its brand.  Will it accurately reflect the single aspect that differentiates “us” from “them”?  Will it convey the personality and illicit the emotional response anticipated?  Will it clearly communicate the promise of the value that the business has to offer?  In order to be effective, the savvy brand builder will ponder these questions and be able to more successfully develop a stickier message.

The best messaging will attract the right audience and hold onto them through the sales process hopefully converting them into loyal customers and ultimately brand evangelists.  In the article, “3 Ways to Clearly Communicate Your Marketing Message. Stop Using “Trump Talk””, David August shares some great keys to effective brand building.  The first takeaway the author provides is, “Communicate a promise – one that your business can keep — that addresses peoples’ preferences and concerns proactively.”

This article is a great reminder to avoid cliche and buzz words and phrases, which give weak and watered down messages.  Consumers want authenticity.  Clearly communicate what makes a business different and what is the promise of your brand.  Using the businesses own words will resonate with prospective customers.  August concludes, “Use your limited space to say something meaningful. Something that will put your offering at the top of peoples’ lists.”  By doing this a business’s brand will become stickier.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

 

Customer Experience, Employees, Entrepreneur, Small Business
0 Reply

Are You Investing in Customer Experience?

Oct 21, 2016
customer experience

In an article by Omar Soliman, Co-founder and CEO of College Hunks Hauling Junk and Trash Butler, entitled, 4 Lessons About Handling Stressed Customers That I Learned From Being a Mover, Soliman ultimately makes the case that businesses should be setting aside money to invest in customer experience.  This realization comes as the author tries to answer the question, “How can an entrepreneur address a customer’s emotional and logistical needs simultaneously?”  The answer to this question is to reflect the promise of the brand by best understanding and investing in customer experience.

By knowing what the brand offers and finding a team that can be empathetic to the customer throughout the interaction with the brand, the business will be successful.  Understanding the customer’s journey and fine tuning the experience from start to finish will improve close rates, increase loyalty and hopefully produce brand evangelists.

As the author concludes, “Growing a loyal and enthusiastic customer base isn’t as complicated as you might think. You can build a viral brand by going above and beyond for your clients and making just such a focus on customer experience part of your business model. In turn, you’ll gain “brand evangelists” who will spread the good news of how your company saved the day for them.”

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

 

 

Older Entries