As entrepreneurs, I’m sure many of you can relate to the “digital leash.” We get so wrapped up being available to customers, employees and associates, and responding at the speed of light, that’s it’s easy to forget about life priorities. Well, if you disconnect for a short time, guess what can happen?

•    You’ll actually get some rest.

Just by reading an e-mail, you can instantly be whisked back into a stressful, work-mode. Without having to check online messages and voicemail, you can actually let your mind go and completely stop thinking about work!

•    You’ll think of creative, business ideas.

When you are not reminded about all of your work responsibilities, you can think about other things and take in new surroundings. With this inspiring process, your train of thought may bring you back to work ideas and you’ll think of creative, new solutions that can help you run a better business.

•    You’ll discover it’s time for a change.

If you are taking a break from your digital connections, you may realize you are overwhelmed, exhausted and really need a change. If you can’t stand the thought of going back to your usual work activities after your “digital disconnection,” this may be a sign that it’s time to set new goals and pursue other, life dreams.

What will happen when you unplug?

Are you stressed out about work and your daily grind? Well, the Memorial Holiday is this weekend. What a perfect time to “unplug” from all of your digital products and enjoy some time off!

Spend time with positive people, visit new places and unwind. You’ll give your mind and body a break from your usual, work routine. And who knows? During that time, you may come up with some new ideas that will revive your love for your work or even develop goals for new, life dreams.

Take a break already and let me know how it goes!

For more information on running a smoother business while increasing online awareness, please contact me below or check out my free tips and information at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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With this in mind, what actions are you going to take right away to make things happen with your PR and search engine optimization (SEO) activities?

Here are 3 ideas to help you get going:

1.    Send out a press release optimized for the search engines.

Make sure it provides valuable information to your customers and the media.

2.    Write an original article or blog and see if a media venue would like to post the content.

If not, post it on your Website and add your top, SEO keywords to the copy.

3.    Create a targeted pitch for a specific media-member and call that person on the phone.

You have nothing to lose, and some potential publicity to gain.

Just by taking a few, simple actions, you can get your spring activities in full bloom so you’ll be ready for summer. Take some time to plan what you are going to do, and then do it! You may surprise yourself at the results!

What about you?

Do you have some good advice on taking action and completing goals that you’d like to share? Please let me know below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com

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When you can’t take on any more clients and you can set whatever fees you want because you are booked solid with work, this is called a “happiness problem.”

And while it can be wonderful to have all this new work and money rolling in, it can also be a problem in that you now need to deal with an overload of business accordingly to keep customers happy and the referrals coming in to grow your business.

Now, most of you are probably dreaming about this scenario. You would love to have a “happiness problem.” Well, even though the economy is tough, I know several business owners experiencing this right now. Their bank accounts are full, and their products and services are in demand.

These entrepreneurs prove that it’s possible so how can you get to this point too? Well, here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:

Three Ways to Create a Happiness Problem

1.    Excel at customer service.

Good customer service has become a rarity these days with all of the inexpensive outsourcing going on.

If you can answer customer questions quickly and provide accurate information with a personal touch, you will win new customers and increase positive word-of-mouth.

2.    Exceed expectations.

If you want to stand out from the competition, over-deliver on what your customer is expecting. Keep your promises but also provide something else. This may be an extra discount, free shipping, additional services, a surprise gift, etc.

Let your customers know they are important to you and always give them want they want with a little extra something to make them feel special.

3.    Make communication easy.

Once you provide excellent products and services and make your customers feel important, be sure to have great, communication processes in place. Give your customers referral cards and tell them to share their experience with your business with their friends.

Also, include valuable information on your Website with the appropriate e-mails, phone numbers and addresses. Offer places for people to post testimonials and feedback. If people want to refer you to others, do you make it easy for them? It may sound simple, but with the right referral process in place, you may be just steps away from a “happiness problem”!

Take Action!

Most of the entrepreneurs I know who have “happiness problems” right now work very hard. They care about the products and services that they offer their customers. More important, they take action on good ideas and make things happen.

After all, it’s one thing to dream about charging whatever fees you want and having customers knocking on your door. It’s another thing to take action to make this dream a reality. A “happiness problem” is waiting for you. Use these tips to get going. After all, it’s up to you to make it happen!

If you need help with your communications and SEO copywriting, please write to me below or check out the free tips at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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1.  Have a Giveaway

Tip #1- Do giveaways on Facebook, your blog, and/or other blogs that have a lot of traffic. Give away something small from your business about once a month and ask that to enter the contest, you must “like” your Facebook page. There are several free giveaway apps on Facebook that will even send the message to their followers and also run the contest by picking the winner for you. I’ve watched my fan page grown from about 200 likes to almost 3,000 likes in around 6 months just from giveaways, and I get many customers and a lot of feedback also from these giveaways.

Thanks to:  Megan Andrus from My Accessory Business

One budget friendly way to market your business is to sponsor a giveaway on a blog or Facebook. I have sponsored giveaways and regularly give things away on my Confessions of a Coupon Queen Facebook page. (I call it “Win It Wednesday.”) Here’s how it works. A small business will give me a gift certificate or some product to give away to my fans, usually in the $25 value range. I plug the company at least three times before the giveaway. I use Rafflecopter to administer the giveaway. It allows me to require my fans to like the sponsor’s Facebook page, subscribe to their Twitter feed, etc. I have sponsored giveaways for other blogs and Facebook pages which, in one instance, netted me over 500 new fans. People love free stuff! And $25 is pretty cheap advertising.

Thanks to: Christine Luken of Strong Tower, LLC

2.  Feature Your Customers

We are a company that designs and supplies custom embroidered patches for clients such as Boy Scouts, motorcycle clubs, fire departments, and more.  I sent out an email to all of our previous customers telling them that we want to hear their story and we want to feature them on our blog. I asked them to reply with a little background about their organization and how they use their patches. I even told them if they’d like, they could send some images of their patches in use. The response was overwhelming. It turns out our customers love us! I got so many responses of stories as well as high praise.

This fosters great customer relationships. If we took the time to write about someone and promote him or her on our website, whom do you think that person is going to return to when they need the same type of services again? There’s little question. Not only that, but we get free promotion too. Everyone loves to see his or her name in print, so they share and tweet the article and tell their friends about it. If any of their friends need this service, whom do you think they are now going to use? Also, when potential customers see it, it will convince them to use us, because they will see what a great relationship we have with our customers.

Thanks to: Marisa Brayman of Stadri Emblems

3.  Use Local Media Outlets to Spread the Word

If you need local traffic, contact your local media contact like newspapers or local TV stations to get your business written up by the business editor or featured on the TV and the story is usually assigned by the assignment desk.  This also works for state business publications or regional newspapers.

You can also submit info to talk radio stations.   Most local radio stations will trade radio commercials for gift certificates.  Some will do full trades, others half trade and half cash.  If you are a retailer, the trade can be product or certificates and the cash can come from your co-op advertising dollars that your vendors offer or just your cash.   Don’t have time to search for your co-op dollars?  Call your local radio station and ask for a sales rep.  They will do the search for you as they are members of RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau) for free but want you business.  You will need to give them all your vendor names in order to do the search.  Most co-op dollars that do radio also do TV print, etc.

Thanks to: Tina Janke Midtown Marketing Group Inc.

4.  Partner with Other Local Businesses

I, like everyone else am trying all kinds of things to get the word out about my new product.  The latest thing I did was join a Gym. In particular the Gold’s Gym in Gastonia, NC. They have a program that helps promote small businesses by advertising for us if we offer a discount to their members. In addition I get a discount for myself and all my employees. Truly a round of winning.

Thanks to: Marni Peters of Idea Incubator Inc.

5.  Spend $5

I’d recommend Fiverr.com as a great way to market your business on a budget. Fiverr is a global marketplace where people can buy and sell goods for as little as $5 and currently lists more than 500,000 gigs. Businesses can use anything from SEO enhancement services to promotional video making - all for the price of a latte!

Thanks to: Allison Brady or Atomic PR

6.  Use YouTube

One of my favorite budget-friendly marketing ideas is employed by Expert Laser Services, an IT consultant and printer repair service that created a “Destroy Your Printer” YouTube contest. People submitted videos of themselves destroying their nonfunctional printers in creative ways: throwing printers out the window, hunting them down and shooting them in the woods, etc. The contest itself didn¹t attract the large number of entries that they expected…but ultimately created a buzz online that lead to more than 4,000 views and thousands of dollars in new sales.

Thanks to: David Langton of Langton Cherubino Group, Ltd.

7.  Give Customers Something that Creates Conversations

Randomly sending some of our best fundraisers a Go Get Funding T-shirt. That surprise and low-cost gift helps to build a great relationship. And as a bonus, they’ll have a story to tell anyone that asks a question about the shirt.

Thanks to:  Sandip Singh from Go Get Funding

8.  Use Creative Handouts

When speaking with local organizations to even national ones, I create a personalized bookmark and give them to everyone. The bookmark is double sided with one side holding the key point of the speech and the other size a place to write some sort of goals.

These have been very successful and only cost me the ink to print and the cardstock. In using a Microsoft word document, I secure 4 bookmarks per 8-1/2×11 sheet of cardstock.

Thanks to: Leanne Hoagland-Smith of Advanced Systems

9.  Stand Out in a Crowd

If you’re a woman, seeking female customers, and you’re at a meeting, trade show, sale or elsewhere, get noticed by carrying a truly unique accessory like a red purse smothered in crystals, a standout scarf made from recycled sweaters, or very bold jewelry. This works amazingly well in attracting attention. It’s up to you to move the conversation from your accessory to your product or service.

Thanks to:  Lynn Colwell from Celebrate Green

10. Create Great Shareable Content

An easy and very cost effective marketing method we use at my company, Pig of the Month BBQ is to create 3-5 downloadable pdf files around free information (in our case, recipe guides, wine and beer pairings, and grilling tutorials) that are simple and created in Google docs and then shared from our website. We then contact the top 100 or so bloggers in a related field and ask them to share it with their readers as well. The bloggers get nicely done and interesting content to share and as people are reading though they see our logo, website, and a link or 2 thrown in so they can follow it back to learn more or see more recipes on our site.

This could be applied to several different business models as well and is dirt cheap. For example, a dentist might create an easy one page downloadable printout showing how long and the best way to brush kids’ teeth every day. It could be hung in bathrooms and then seen by prospective customers daily to create awareness.

Thanks to: Lea Richards of Pig of the Month

Want to get more inexpensive and practical small business marketing ideas, grab a free e-book called “Build Buzz for Your Biz, 23 Creative and Inexpensive Marketing Strategies That Will Get You Noticed” at http://23kazoos.com.

Wendy Kenney the Founder of 23 Kazoos, a Marketing and Public Relations firm in Phoenix, Arizona, that is relentless about results.  She is the bestselling author of How to Build Buzz for Your Business available on Amazon.com, and has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Newsday.

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The article sites a Lithium Social Media study in which they found ‘Because of social media, [one is] more likely to try new things based on friends’ suggestions’ to be 80 percent.  The article also quotes one of the founders of Blogher, Lisa Stone, as saying ‘there’s no one a woman trusts more for advice, recommendations…than another woman in her circle.’

Major brands like T.J. Maxx, Toyota, and P&G consistently work with bloggers, specifically mom bloggers, to help promote their products, overall mission, and get the word out on everything new concerning their brand.

How does this concern you, as small business owners?

In a big way.  Although earlier I mentioned large, big-box brands embracing the benefit of working with bloggers, many start-ups find the leg-up that they need right in their own virtual backyard with bloggers.  In fact, I find that a large number of bloggers hold a soft spot for new and upcoming start-ups and tend to like to work with them.

Basically, blogs are driving consumers.  I paint with a broad brush when I say that, but the general gist is that there are a number of very successful blogs that are founded on the premise of hard work and good ethics that are stirring the marketplace.  Receiving an endorsement, review, and/or mention by these blogs allows your brand to reach a widespread audience (who simply put - view these blogs as their friend next door).

Being featured in blogs is becoming increasingly more coveted and a part of many companies’ P.R. plan.

So, how do you do it?  How do you approach a blogger?

I will start with this - Bloggers work hard.  Many hours go into producing a high end post.  There is more time associated with promoting the post.  For many bloggers, blogging is a big part of their income (they deserve to make money, too - for their efforts and work).

With this being said, the first step in approaching a blogger is being respectful of their work, time, and business (which you want to be promoting your business).  Make sure you are prepared with a finished website and readily available information on your brand.

Second, please be sure to actually READ the blogger’s blog.  Get to know the flavor of the blog, the writer’s style, and think about how your brand or product would fit.  If you do not think it is a good fit, move on.

Next pitch yourself in a clear and concise manner that let’s the blogger realize that you read their blog, know their name, and want to value (compensate) them for their time.

Finally, know that a large blogger cannot respond to every request that he/she receives.  Follow-up in a week or so if you do not hear back.

If you are a skeptic, ask your friends how they look for a new product or service.  Chances are they either follow a few blogs on the subject or google a blog or two when looking to make a purchase.

Feel free to visit me at http://backngroovemom.com if you have any questions.

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When you are not sure what to talk about, think about your target audience.

What do they want to hear? What do they care about right now?

With this in mind, her are some tips to help you come up with some good Tweets:

10 Sweet Tweets for Your Customers

1.    Do you have a special discount to share with your Twitter followers only?

2.    Do you have an exclusive event or contest going on for your Twitter audience only?

3.    Do you have some hot, company news to share?

4.    What is the latest trend in your industry?

5.    What is the latest news in your industry?

6.    Is there a unique holiday or current event you can discuss?

7.    What is going on in today’s celebrity news that relates to your company?

8.    Did one of your followers say something interesting you can discuss?

9.    Did you read an interesting story that will provide value to your customers?

10.    Do you have any survey results or industry statistics to share?

Get Organized.

These are just a few ideas to get your brain going. And once you get started, I’m sure you can think of many more. And if you want to be really organized, you’ll want to set up an editorial calendar. This way, you can plan what kind of information you want to share with your audiences in advance.

For example, maybe you are starting a contest in June, having a big summer sale in July or holding an event in August. You can add these to your editorial calendar in advance and start thinking of interesting ways to talk about them in your Tweets.

And if you really don’t know what your customers want to hear, test the information you post. Which entries get the most feedback? Which comments send lots of people back to your site? You get the idea.

The key is to post information that your target market will be interested in sharing with others. This takes time and effort so if you notice you are posting comments about what you had for lunch, things your kids said after school or how you just had an argument with your spouse, stop! You are getting lazy and need to focus on your audience.

Twitter can be a fun way to interact with your customers and discover more about your target market. If you organize your thoughts and provide valuable and interesting information, you can create a successful social media program that increases word-of-mouth and sales.

Do you need help with the SEO copywriting and social media on your site? Please write to me below or check out my site at www.rembrandtwrites.com for more free tips.

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It’s a matter of setting aside some time and following these…

3 Steps to Get a Big Story in the Media On Your Own

1.    Create a Unique Story.

As I’ve said in previous posts about PR, the key to getting the media’s attention is to develop a unique story specific to a media member’s interests. Instead of approaching hundreds of media members with a press release, create a story relevant to the one writer, editor, blogger, or producer you want to pursue.

Your story needs to be new, unique to your business, and most important, help that particular media member provide valuable information to his or her readers.

2.    Pitch and Keep Quiet!

When you are finished crafting your story, call the media member and give your pitch. Tell that person you created the story specifically for their publication and that they can have the exclusive on it within a certain time frame. This means they are the only ones who can announce the story first.

Provide all of the details and interviews they need to make the story a reality, and then wait. Do not start pitching the story to others. Otherwise, you could burn your relationship with that media member, and word will spread among journalists that you are not true to your word about exclusive stories.

3.    Know When to Move On.

If you did your research and crafted a good story, your exclusive will probably be published by the media member you approached. If not, don’t worry. Many times, their stories are out of their control and based on advertiser needs, trends and current news.

Once you know that the media member you approached is not going to publish your story and the time frame you quoted has passed, you can tell other media members about your story, send out your press release or start over again with a new story specific to a different media member.

Media Members Like to Be First.

If you want to get a big story in a favorite venue, you’ve got to provide a specific media member with a unique story that has not been published. Journalists like to reveal breaking news, trends and data to their audience. And if you can provide this information, you greatly increase your chances of getting some good media-coverage.

Yes, it takes time and effort to create a unique story and pitch it. This is where the skills of a publicist come in handy. But if you can set aside a few hours to take care of this activity yourself, you may see a big story about your company in the media, and your return on investment will be well worth it.

Do you need help building awareness for your business via SEO and public relations? Please write to me below or contact me at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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Recently, I spoke to the CEO of Your Dollar Matters, Inc., http://www.theformtool.com, Bob Christensen. As a successful, small business owner who deals with other entrepreneurs in accounting, case management and HR on a regular basis, he is getting the word out about his business and increasing sales via public relations efforts. Here are his insights…

Why did you start Your Dollar Matters?

As a significant purchaser of professional services, particularly from lawyers and accountants, I was often disappointed by the agreements and documents that constituted their final product, which were usually just cut-and-paste hatchet jobs in Word, regurgitations of documents created 20 years ago and reused 1000 times since.

I wanted to provide the market with the kind of professional, form-based product I expected rather than what I was getting. While I don’t mind paying well for expert guidance and advice, compensating someone hundreds of dollars an hour for laboriously tweaking documents they’ve written 100 times before strikes me as ludicrous. I’ll gladly pay by the gram for brains, but not by the pound for the words!

With Your Dollar Matters, we saw an opportunity to do well by doing good: good for professionals who are yoked to their clocks; good for clients who want lower prices and better service; even good for “the system” by improving courthouse and bureaucratic productivity, too, by giving taxpayers a more efficient bang for the buck.

What advice do you have for others starting a new business?

Figure out who needs a better mousetrap then build one that is exponentially better than the best. Before you launch, though, figure out how you’re going to convince your market that it actually needs your better device.

Because, as it should, the market only cares about one question, “What’s in it for me?” A successful entrepreneur needs to have an overwhelmingly convincing answer to that question.

How are you getting the word out about your business and why?

Times have changed. Traditional paid media is fading fast. Consumers, including business consumers, have instant access to what I think of as “crowd experience,” reports on product experiences from users in near real-time.

Our biggest decision was to adopt a “Freeconomics” business model similar to what Facebook, Pandorajam and Twitter have done, where a small minority of users pay for the service while the vast majority get it for free. (Note: “Freeconomics” is a strategy outlined by Chris Anderson in his 2009 bestseller, “Free: The Future of a Radical Price.”) We expected that decision would help us build a user base fast, to which we could later turn for word of mouth (or keyboard), product reviews, testimonials and paid upgrades.

Three of the unexpected consequences of that decision were fascinating. First, overnight TheFormTool found an international following among people who need document assembly on a regular basis. Second, because people could actually count on a real product and a real lifetime license for absolutely free, they stepped up to decisions they otherwise might not have. Finally, the incredibly rapid adoption into other industries – contractors, estimators, environmental engineers, insurance and a dozen others – is possible because people could justify giving TheFormTool a chance because of the low-risk threshold of their decision.

What marketing and publicity strategies have worked so far and why?

As buyers, we all look for the Amazon ratings or online ratings in other virtual stores. We trust those masses of anonymous, prior purchasers. With TheFormTool, our task was to develop a respectably-sized user base just as fast as possible and to give users an opportunity to crow or complain about our product and service.

Now, ordinary people really can assemble the smartest documents™ in the world and they do, easily - the feedback and chatter were stellar. After awhile, the professionals started noticing the chatter, and we began to have opportunities to help them with editorial content, which provided free media coverage, which fed the virtuous circle.

What do you plan to do in the areas of PR and marketing in the future to build awareness and why?

Our job is to expand the user base and continually enhance document-assembly users’ experience so that they come to the point where the reasons for buying are just overwhelming. The best way to do that is to share current users’ experience with the interested public.

That translates into tightly focused attention on our primary vertical markets. We’ll work with PR professionals to identify those markets and to seek and exploit opportunities for press attention within them.

Why is public relations important to your overall, business goals right now?

We want TheFormTool to become as ubiquitous as pen and paper once were. For that, we need awareness among 100 million or more potential, document-assembly purchasers of their need for increased productivity.

We need everyone to agree with us that it’s time for documents to start thinking on their own, for promissory notes to be smart enough to compute their own payments and for a contractor’s bid form to fill itself out, correctly and instantly. Public relations is the most efficient way to accomplish these goals.

What PR and marketing tips do you have for other, new business owners?

Build a story just as fast as possible, but remember that the best stories are not about you or your company. The very best stories are about users and customers. They’re the ones that are reinventing the world.

Thanks for the information Bob. Hopefully, your insights will help other small business owners with their PR and marketing activities.

How about you? Do you have marketing and PR tips for other entrepreneurs? Please write to me below or visit my site at www.rembrandtwrites.com for more information.

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But don’t despair! Use this opportunity to learn from your mistakes, and to create a more successful campaign next time, ask yourself these questions:

•    Did you give your customers what they were expecting?

If your customers signed up for your e-mails to receive valuable information, news and insights from your company, they probably do not want to hear your sales pitch. Take a look at your e-mail campaign again.

Did you give your customers what they asked for when they registered, or did you surprise them with information they did not want? If so, stop this practice. Otherwise, your e-mail address and messages will go straight to the spam filter list. Plus, you’ll lose a lot of business.

•    Did you provide value?

No one likes to receive e-mails pitching the latest Webinar, sale, coupon, event, etc. Instead, your customers want to know what’s in it for them. Provide valuable information they can use and make it worthwhile for them to read your e-mail.

If you need to sell something, that’s fine. Just make sure you offer more substance than sales. This way, you will establish a reputation of providing value, and your customers will be more likely to read your mail, hear what you have to say and forward your message to others.

•    Did you test the results?

Are you measuring how many people clicked on your links, read specific copy, opened your e-mail and when, etc.? If not, how can you possibly know what is working and what isn’t?

Test different types of content, the time you send your e-mail, various responses, and other data important to your overall goals. This is the only way to discover what your customers want to read, when they want to read it and how often. Then, you can fulfill their needs the best way possible and have a more successful campaign.

E-Mail Success Takes Work.

People are inundated with items in their Inbox. To beat the competition, it’s necessary to discover what your customers want and give it to them… when they want it. And this takes time and effort.

You need to test variants on the copy, links, sending times, information, calls-to-action, graphics, and more. Then, it’s necessary to review the results and regularly monitor the information that your customers want to receive from you. This way, you can develop long-term customers who look forward to receiving your messages and are willing to share them with others.

Do you need help crafting the right SEO copy and e-mail messages for your customers? Please contact me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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Do you have this feeling that you should get involved with it but just aren’t sure? Well, here are…

3 Ways to Know Whether or Not You Should Get Into Social Media

1.    Are your customers using it?

First and foremost, you have to think about your target market and your goals. You should not get involved with social media just to “jump on the bandwagon.”

Before starting a social media process, conduct some research and set goals. What will your customers gain? What do you want to accomplish? What kind of content will you provide? These are just some of the questions to answer prior to starting your social media process.

2. Do you have time to stay connected?

Social media is about interaction and communication. If you don’t have time to post valuable information every day, provide feedback and offer different information on your various, social media channels, your efforts can completely backfire and make your business look stale and out of touch.

To be successful in social media, it’s essential to be present, talk to customers and really communicate with them regularly. Social media can be a full-time job, so if you don’t have time to do it yourself the right way, hire someone who can.

And if you really want to be a part of social media but can’t afford to hire someone to handle it for you, start small. Perhaps, you can start with a facebook page and move up from there? It all depends on how much time you have to devote to your social media efforts to make it a positive experience for you and your customers.

3. Will you track results?

Once you start your social media process, it’s essential to track the results regularly. Otherwise, how are you going to know if your efforts are working or not?

You’ll want to see what content is most popular with your audience so you can provide valuable information, what links people are clicking on most, how different entries relate to sales, and more. The information you track will depend on your specific goals for your social media program.

Once you have this information, you can work on constantly improving your processes to meet customer needs and business milestones.

Ready to move forward?

Yes, social media offers a huge opportunity to reach new customers, increase brand awareness and beat the competition. But if you don’t have a social media plan, and the time to implement and track it the right way, you may waste a lot of time and money. Even worse, you may make a bad impression and end up dealing with a PR nightmare rather than good communications that lead to long-term customer relationships and sales growth.

Do you need help with the way you communicate with your target market via social media, PR and SEO copywriting efforts, please write to me below or at www.rembrandtwrites.com.

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