Category Archives: Strategy
Guest Q&A: Big Small Brands founder Jen Barth shares her secrets to building a nonprofit brand
As part of our Philanthropy February campaign, I immediately thought of a friend and colleague, Jen Barth, who with a husband, two twin daughters, a dog and cat, and running her own business, finds the time to be a leader in grassroots education and children’s health reform.
I recently had the opportunity to interview Jen about what nonprofits, with limited resources and budget, can do to build their brands and connect with their supporters.
4 ways community involvement can grow your business
Reaching out to volunteer for a nonprofit in your community can lead to opportunities and benefits that enhance your company’s long-term reputation while growing your business.
Sure, you’ll be contributing positively to society and spreading your brand awareness across the community. But you’ll probably also have some fun while networking to meet new leads and potential business partners.
Choose a charity you respect and admire that also coincides with your company’s values, and learn the benefits below for how helping others can help grow your business. Continue reading…
How a father-daughter project grew into one of the most influential nonprofits in Social Media
Gabe O’Neill could have never predicted back in March 2008 that a father-daughter project would blossom into one of the most influential nonprofits in social media. Now – with a combined audience of about 50,000 Twitter followers and Facebook fans, and a network of more than 1.4 million followers through tweets donated by supporters – Mashable considers Kids Are Heroes to be the No. 4 must-follow nonprofit making a difference with social media.
It all started when Gabe’s daughter, MaryMargaret, approached him about building a website to help animals. “Why stop at animals?” asked Gabe, a software engineer in Maryland with an entrepreneurial spirit. “Why not help people too?” And that’s when the father-daughter duo came up with the concept for “Kids Are Heroes,” an organization dedicated to encouraging children to become leaders through community involvement. Continue reading…
How to launch an online fundraising campaign for free using only a blog and a Facebook page
If you’re a nonprofit just starting out in social media, you can launch a very effective online fundraising campaign for free using only a blog and Facebook. Mastering these two tools will help you to build the framework for future online fundraising strategies.
According to the 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Report, 92 percent of all nonprofits use at least one commercial social network and 89 percent of them use Facebook. A survey commissioned by Idealware also found that 84 percent of nonprofits were effectively using blogs to enhance existing relationships with donors.
Continue reading…
How to improve your customer service experience
From the first marketing messages prospective clients see to the first question asked when they need help, your goal should be to create an experience that is as simple and as convenient as possible. However, it’s not all about having the best call center technology or being staffed to the brim—for small businesses, this is not reality. Great customer service starts with the customer’s experience with your company, which means not just being focused on happy customers, but a happy team.
Here are 7 tips to keep in mind to empower your customer service representatives: Continue reading…
How to create a solid business card
Nothing conveys professionalism like a solid business card. And if you run a small business and plan to engage in any sort of in-person networking, you better have one to trade.
As a graphic designer I have designed my own fair share of business cards, and have traded more than I can count with prospective business clients and contacts. Below are some tips to help your business card have an impact: Continue reading…
8 steps to launch an email marketing newsletter
Executing an effective communication strategy is vital in today’s connected world. Sure, you want to communicate special promotions and other marketing messages that will increase your customers’ interest in your product or service. But to be successful, you should also provide objective, interesting content they can enjoy and put to use.
An email newsletter is a great form of communication because it allows you take off the sales hat for a moment and talk to your audience in a different way. Not only does it help your brand, but crafting a newsletter is a soothing drill for YOU as well. But where do you start? Continue reading…
What’s in a logo
I see a lot of logos and brand personalities in my job. Heading up the partner management team, I not only get to work with the brands of major corporations, but also get to see them apply those brands to new products and create new logos for them. These companies have spent a lot of time and resources perfecting their logo, which are seen internationally and represent the core of their brand.
But what are small businesses to do about a logo? You obviously care about how your company is viewed and remembered by customers. So do you hire an expensive brand agency to craft your all-supreme logo? Throw something together in Paint just so you have one? Not quite. Here are a few guidelines to go by.
Get a professional. In general, yes you should absolutely get a professional person or service, but there are many inexpensive options out there. You can also use some free do-it-yourself tools to try a look out. Here are a few: Continue reading…
Will working from home become the new norm?
Everything these days seems to have gone online: marketing, meetings, online billing, customer service, networking and even invoicing. But a new trend is emerging that may someday evolve into the new norm: working online from home.
According to the Employment Review from Elance reports, the number of businesses seeking to hire independent contractors who work remotely doubled in 2011. And 83 percent of businesses surveyed said they plan to let half their employees work from home over the next 12 months. Continue reading…
5 quick tricks to optimize your marketing
Whether you’re writing a press release, ad copy, content for a webpage, a blog post or an email campaign, there are some quick and easy steps you can take to optimize your marketing content.
Skip over the obvious proofread-proofread-proofread step for a minute, assuming your content is beautifully free of grammatical errors, and try out one or all of the following ideas to give your copy an extra boost. Continue reading…
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