Mine Your Own Business

Web Survey Tools

We did a posting last month titled A Simple Way to Survey that described a new survey tool designed for mobile devices that made it easy to create simple and short surveys. Not everyone has an iPhone, iPad, or other smart mobile device (yet), and since both positive and negative feedback from your customers is so crucial I thought it might be a good idea to mention an article I ran across.  five cheap or even free Web survey tools. Online Tools to Solicit Feedback from Customers presents five cheap or even free Web survey tools they recommend. The article didn't include links so I've added them below to save you a little time.

• Get Satisfaction
• SurveyMonkey
• PollDaddy
• Search.Twitter.com
• 4Q Online Survey

I've done the bulk of the Web surveys for Tacony since 2004, so our experience might be beneficial for anyone who is new to surveys. We started off by purchasing survey software and installing it on one of our servers. We got pretty good response rates from our surveys by offering coupons and other incentives. Probably the most effective technique has been offering points that can be redeemed for merchandise.

We are still using the survey software since it is extremely cost effective, but it was incapable of doing some of the more advanced functions and reporting we sometimes needed, so we tried one of the premium versions of  SurveyMonkey with excellent results. I did check out all the other tools mentioned above and they all looked like they would work very well for starting out with Web surveys. One of the most important things to remember is to use both the positive and negative results to actively improve your business since that is the whole reason for doing surveys in the first place.

Improve Your Social Media Results

There are many variations of an old adage in advertising that goes something like this, "I know that half my advertising works...I just don't know which half!" I wondered who first came up with this humorous statement and according to my research it was probably John Wanamaker in the late 1880s. You can follow this link to some other people that are credited with using some variation of this quote.

What holds true with figuring out what part of your advertising works also applies in a somewhat similar fashion to social media. Why do you receive unsubscribes from you email marketing, or "unlikes" from your Business Facebook Page, or why do people stop "following" your company on Twitter? There was a recent article from Entrepreneur that provided some results from a report from ExactTarget, an interactive marketing services provider.

Some of the results make perfect sense, such as 54 percent of consumers unsubscribe from emails because they get too many of them. The same holds true with Facebook, too much posting causes 44 percent to "unlike" your page. The results were a little different with Twitter, evidently consumer don't mind getting a lot of Tweets but 52 percent stopped "following' because the tweets were boring and repetitive.

There is a lot more information in the article regarding not only what consumers dislike about these three forms of social media, but what they like about them as well. If you're interested in more information on this topic there is a link to ExactTarget in the article. I followed the link and they are having a Webinar on this topic on March 15th. In this instance the Ides of March might be a good thing for your company if you pick up some good tips at the Webinar.

Is Cloud Printing Right for your Small Business?

Cloud computing is all the rage today for many companies and when I ran across an article mentioning cloud printing it got my attention. By the way if you are not familiar with the term cloud computing or want to read more about the history of cloud computing, you can find out more about it at the ever valuable Wikipedia. 5 Ways Cloud Printers Will Make Your Small Business Soar provides five reasons to consider cloud printing for your small business.

1. Convenience
2. Confidentiality
3. Control
4. Compatibility
5. The Cool Factor

The three reasons I thought were the most compelling in the article were Convenience, Control, and Compatibility since I have run into many of the problems that these reasons for cloud computing would address. I also had some concerns about Confidentiality and there were some great links to other information that eased my main concerns in this area.

If the article has persuaded you that cloud printing might be a good idea for your small business, don't forget to consider the cost of operating the printer or printers. We did a posting on Friday of last week on the cost advantages of a laser printer over an inkjet printer over time and how the cost per page of a laser printer could be as low as .8 cents per page as opposed to  4 to 5 cents for an inkjet printer.

When we were doing research for this post we ran across some reviews of some printers describing how there can be a big difference in the cost of toner cartridges between manufacturers and one review of a printer estimated a cost of .375 cents a page. That same printer supported duplex printing to drastically cut paper costs. Last but not least, there are refill kits available for some toner cartridges that reduce the price even further. I have not tried a refill kit personally so I can't vouch for how easy they are to use or how well they work, but you can bet I will give them a try next time I run out of toner.

 

 

 

Small Businesses and Facebook

Facebook has been a frequent topic on this blog, in fact we just did one last week an a recent upgrade to Facebook Business Pages. Now comes an article titled 3 Reasons Why Your Business Should Avoid Facebook that describes how a Facebook Business Page can be a liability rather than an asset for your small business. The article presents three reasons why it might be a good idea to avoid Facebook.

• It's Stressful for Consumers
• You're Hard to Find
• Privacy and Security

Make sure and read the  comments at the end of the article that present some more ideas on the value of Facebook for your small business.  Two comments are in favor of a Facebook Business Page and actually have some figures to back up why they feel it is certainly is an asset. One other comment presents pros and cons of your business being on Facebook. So after reading the article and the comments how do you feel about your small business and Facebook?

More Small Business Tech Advice

We did a posting earlier this year titled Small Business Tech Advice about some technologies to avoid in 2011. We've also posted frequently on such tech things as the importance of frequent computer back ups, computer security, software licensing, power backup, and many other tech topics. Now comes a new article from PCWorld that provides a pretty comprehensive list of 15 common tech mistakes that a lot of small businesses make. We won't go into the whole list here, but I have some personal experience on tip number seven, Not researching your printer so I'll focus on that one.

A technically challenged friend of mine (not that I'm a wizard by any means) recently bought a new computer and was having trouble getting his old inkjet printer to work, so he asked me for a recommendation. I suggested a laser printer for many reasons based on my personal experience. I have an 11 year old laser printer that has been incredibly reliable over the years and you never have to clean print heads with a laser printer, so reliability was a big factor in my recommendation.

Another factor is that a laser printer is more cost effective in the long run. While it is more expensive up front, the cost per copy is much less. My wife has a combination inkjet printer and scanner that I think cost us less than $150 (I've seen them on sale for under $100). Imagine my shock when I had to replace both inkjet cartridges and it cost me $80! I know you can have them refilled, but I had a bad experience with that with a different printer so I stayed away from that option.

The laser printer is a whole different story. The one I have has two different capacity toner cartridges so you can save some money by buying the high yield cartridge which will print 2400 copies. You can save additional money ($34.00 vs $54) by purchasing a recycled toner cartridge as opposed to a new one. As opposed to the refillled inkjet cartridges, I've been using these for years with absolutely no problems.

There is a great link in the article to a study PCWorld did comparing the cost per page of inkjet vs laser. Inkjets cost 4-5 cents a page while they found that lasers cost 1-2.5 cents a page. Actually, according to my calculations for my old printer using recycled toner cartridges the cost drops down to .8 cents a page.

You say you need to print color? Simple, buy one of each and only use the inkjet when you have to have color. You'll pay for the other printer very quickly with the money you save on inkjet cartridges and in addition get better quality. The whole article is a great resource of information for your small business and there are many great links to get even more information on the fifteen tips.

 

Facebook Business Page Upgrade

I'm a big believer in duct tape (sometimes referred to as hundred mile an hour tape) so when I ran across an article from Duct Tape Marketing on an upgrade to Facebook it immediately caught my attention. Many small business owners have been proactive about social media and have created a Facebook Business Page and according to the article there are some major improvements that will be implemented by March 1st. The article goes on to describe some of the most important improvements.

• iframe Tabs for pages
• Look and feel
• Operation

There are many links in the article to help any small business in upgrading their Facebook Small Business Page before the changes take effect. The article makes the point that many of the changes may mean a move to separate business and personal profiles and stresses that all the changes are fluid. Some will stay, some will change over time, and some will disappear. The main thing is now is the the time to do your homework (or in this case business work?) to make sure you take full advantage of the upcoming changes.

A Simpler Way to Survey

Small business owners know how important customer feedback is for making sure you are satisfying your customers. Surveys are one of the best ways to determine how successful your small business is in this crucial area. The problem is getting people to take surveys since I know that I am not willing to take many of the surveys that pop up when I visit websites. The reason I don't participate in surveys very often is that frequently surveys are complicated and long and I don't want to waste time filling one out. Incentives sometimes have worked on me in the past, but a new survey tool for iPhone, iPad, and Android may make surveys more attractive for your customers so maybe incentives won't be needed.

Funnel Makes Web Surveys That Are Fun describes how the new survey tool takes care of the two issues mentioned above since the surveys are simple and short by design. This makes people more willing to take the survey. The article goes on to describe two other advantages of Funnel. One is that it relies on touching rather than clicking which the developers state is a much more natural experience. Second, later versions will also will use things only available with mobile devices such as geolocation. We saved the best for last, though, the first version is free to encourage people to try out Funnel. If you are interested, Funnel launches next week.

 

New Program from Facebook

Facebook Places was launched late last year for the iPhone and has since expanded so that you can use Places on touch.facebook.com or the Facebook App for  BlackBerry, Android, HP webOS or Windows Phone 7. If you're not familiar with Facebook Places and would like more information, visit the Facebook website or this article we ran across when Places was first released.  Originally there wasn't much incentive for users to use Places, but now Facebook has followed up with a beta version of a program called Facebook Deals.

How to Build Business with Facebook Deals from Entrepreneur provides a lot of informaion on Deals and why it can be such a valuable tool for any small business. The article describes how Deals offers four different types of deals.

• Individual Deal
• Friend Deal
• Loyalty Deal
• Charity Deal

Allowing four different types of deals greatly increases the options available for any small business owner. Don't miss the link at the bottom of the article that will take you to the Facebook website so you can set up Facebook Deals for your business.

Website Design Reminder

OK, so you've gone to the trouble of creating a company website or paying someone to design one for you and you've got a great homepage that effectively communicates your site's purpose. What you may not know or had forgotten is that many of your visitors don't come in through your homepage. They probably used a search engine to find information on the products your company sells, so they landed on a page for the product or service they were searching for. An article from Entrepreneur stresses that and provides  more information on how you should design all your pages.

The article describes how your site should have a clear purpose, whether if is information about your products or selling them. Once that has been established, every page should communicate that purpose and point visitors to the intended call of action.  The article goes on to provide six Interior Page Must-Haves about half way through the posting on the right hand side of the page that give more ideas on the elements each and every page on your site should have. By following the tips in this article your whole site will be an extension of that great homepage you've created and make your site a much more effective tool.

More Tips on Email

We just did a posting yesterday with some tips to make your emails more effective and originally thought we might combine two articles on the topic, but there was so much good and different information in both of them that we thought it was worth two postings. The article The 7 Top Email Marketing Trends for 2011 begins by describing how one of the most important small business marketing trends for 2011 may be the integration of social media and email marketing. Two leading email marketers also provided seven other trends they are predicting for 2011.

1. Integrate Your Email Marketing with Your Social Media Campaigns
2. Make Your Email Marketing Campaigns Mobile
3. Engage Readers
4. Keep Content Brief and Focused
5. Don't Go Overboard On Images or Design
6. Plan Ahead for More Effective Email Campaigns
7. Track Campaigns To Determine What's Working and What's Not

While there is some overlap on the two articles (point number four above with point number 1 in the previous article on brevity), this article presented some totally different points that I had never considered. With the current explosion of smart phones and new tablets point 2 is especially relevant since more and more people may read your email on one of these devices. Your emails of the past that were designed with a computer or laptop in will not work as well on one of these devices, so the article provides some great ideas for making your email more mobile device friendly.

The other point I especially liked is the last point about tracking or analytics software. I spoke to a fellow employee that is involved with Tacony email marketing and he said that this is very important and we use a number of different techniques to monitor the success of our emails. After all, if you don't have some way to track results how do you know what does work and what doesn't?