Market your sales with postcards!

Do you have a great Father’s Day deal to offer your Sonoma County customers this year? Great! How do you usually market your sales or offers? If you have never tried spreading the word with postcards, this might be the perfect time to try.

Postcards are excellent marketing materials. They are eye-catching little pieces of paper that almost effortlessly find their way into your customers’ hands. The hardest part is probably designing the card (and dealing with the line of customers afterward!), but don’t worry, we can help you out with that.

Whether you are offering 20% off ties or having a storewide sale for Dad to go nuts in, postcards will lead new clients and customers right to your door this Father’s Day.

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Big Changes Are Coming to Your Small Business Facebook Page!

You may have already switched your personal Facebook page over to the”timeline” layout, but what about your business page? All business pages will soon adopt the new layout, so make sure you are prepared!

Take a look at our own Facebook page to see how we accommodated the changes. You’ll notice a few new things right off the bat, including a huge cover photo, and the lack of a side navigation bar.

We chose a cover photo that reflects the nature of our 50 year old printing business. Our spiffy, updated logo is our profile picture, located to the left.

Directly below our cover photo is our general and contact information, as well as application links. We’ll discuss the ways in which you can customize your apps to create more engagement between you and your customers in our next post.

The next big change you’ll notice is the timeline layout. This layout allows you to highlight and promote certain posts over another. We’ll discuss more about this in our next post as well.

 So what should you be doing to prepare for the big change? Be sure to have a cover photo ready, as well as your profile picture. Decide which of your Facebook applications you want to feature, and make sure to double check all of your contact information, as it will be one of the first things your followers see when they land on your page.

Again, while a lot of us were raised to oppose change, 2012 is surely a time to embrace it!

10 Ways to Keep Business Flowing in 2012: Part 2

Last week we went over five ways to keep your small business on track in 2012. Here are five more:

Know the How-to

Employees are bound to procrastinate if they are assigned a priority that they do not know how to do. Be sure you equip your employees with the tools, resources and support needed to complete their tasks.

Build Accountability

Making employees accountable for the work that they do will definitely boost productivity in 2012. If you employ people who do not do what they are paid for, it’s time to reinvent your workforce.

Celebrate

Take time to celebrate a completed goal or job well done.

Reward Employees

“A paycheck is not a reward.” This is one of your 2012 mantras! “A reward is something given in recognition of service, effort or achievement,” says Mitch Evans in Quick Printing magazine. Reward your employees for the good work they do. This will build accountability, workflow and improve attitudes.

Communicate

In order to set goals and follow through with priorities, communicate with employees to keep goal completions on track!

10 Ways to Keep Business Flowing in 2012: Part 1

How are you going to keep your business afloat in 2012? Here are a few tips to keep your boat from slowly sinking.

Create a Purpose

What is your small business all about? While you have yearly, quarterly and daily goals, the main purpose behind your small business should be in the back of you and your employees minds at all times. Solidify your mission statement and business values in 2012 if you have not already.

Make a Road Map

Your small business workflow is successful because of your employees’ hard work. And while there are several aspects of your business to be monitored, everyone should recognize communal goals. Be sure everyone is on the same map, even if they travel on different roads.

Prioritize

How are you going to reach that communal goal? Communicate with employees what needs to happen, and when, to achieve goals.

Create a Sense of Urgency

Setting deadlines is an excellent way to get things done. Without deadlines or direction, employee workflow can slow tremendously.

Follow Through

Don’t assume your employees are following through with their priority. A daily or weekly check-in will keep priorities in balance and work flowing.

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Stay tuned next week for five more ways to keep your small business on track in 2012!

Rebranding Your Business in the New Year

Have you heard the rumors about the approaching apocalypse in 2012? We have, and while we’re not quite buying that “the end” is coming, we certainly do anticipate change.

A new year is the perfect opportunity to rebrand your local Sonoma County business. Updating business cards and stationery with a new logo will work wonders to attract new clients, as well as let your current customers know that you are a growing brand.

While a lot of us were raised to oppose change, 2012 is surely a time to embrace it! Contact Ajalon today to begin your rebranding efforts.

Market your local business with a contest on Facebook!

Are you wondering how to attract more fans on your Facebook business page? You’ve posted quality content and implemented a Facebook ad, but it might be a contest that gets you the most “likes.”

With Valentine’s Day approaching, brainstorm ways in which you can market your goods and services to local couples (or singles). Since Ajalon is in the printing business, we might offer 25 free Valentine’s Day greeting cards with a special couple’s photo printed on them. In order to enter, they would have to first “like” our business page, and then leave a comment on our blog telling us how they met. We could choose the winner randomly, or based on the stories collected.

Our contest will bring us new “likes,” interaction, and will spread the word of our business to local customers.

There’s a lot that goes into running a contest on Facebook and you want to be sure to follow their guidelines. Here is an article by SEO expert Mari Smith explaining the fine type.

Have you ever run a contest on Facebook? How did it work out for you?

Attract Customers All Year with 2012 Calendars

One of the easiest and most effective ways to get 12 months of marketing in one print job is by creating a company calendar. Hung on walls in plain sight for anyone to see, an eye catching calendar that promotes your small business will work wonders to attract new and returning customers.

If you are an animal shelter, clients will love to take home your calendar featuring adorable, adoptable pets! Or restaurant patrons just might have to stop by your burger joint for February’s Bacon Cheeseburger after staring at it all day at work. The options are endless.

image via MyZeroWaste

Is your Sonoma County small business on Facebook?

One of the most important tools for your Sonoma County small business is your Facebook business page. Almost 72% of all US internet users are on now Facebook, meaning it is probable that your customers are spending some (or all) of their time on the social media site.

Whether your small business is located in Santa Rosa, Windsor or Petaluma, your Sonoma County customers are trying to find you from the comfort of their own Facebook profile. They are waiting to like your page, share your links and help you promote your brand. Don’t let your business be a blank page, let Ajalon set a business profile up for you!

Not convinced that Facebook is worth the effort? Check out this short video on some 2011 user statistics:

By implementing an efficient and effective Facebook business page, you will allow new customers to find your business and returning customers to interact with your brand. Let Ajalon set up your business page today for only $299!

SEO helps Santa Rosa customers find your business!

Most small business owners have a simple website set up. It used to be that a few simple pages containing the business background, location and contact information was the norm for all business websites. Even though they thought that is all their site needed to get their customers through their front doors back then, they could not be more wrong today.

If a new customer cannot find your website to begin with, any page you publish will be rendered irrelevant. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is going to get your small business website seen on search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Titles

Your webpage title is the most important aspect of your SEO. The keywords you use to title the pages of your website will bring you to the top, or the bottom, of search engine results.

For example, Bob’s Towing originally used the title “Bob’s Towing” on their homepage. This was great when customers of Bob searched for “Bob’s towing” on Google, but what about all the people out there who don’t know about Bob?

When Bob changed his title to “Bob’s Towing – Santa Rosa, Sonoma County Towing and Automotive Services,” he started to reach customers who were searching for things like “santa rosa towing” and “towing sonoma county.” By adding a few relative and local keywords, Bob reached a whole new customer base.

Tags

Title tags are important to how your business website is presented to customers within search engine results. This would be a good place for Bob to condense his page title, creating a transparent link that no one will be afraid to click. Ex: “Bob’s Towing – Santa Rosa Services”

Descriptions

Meta descriptions are also important to how your website is presented to customers within search engine results. When a meta description is not provided, the search engine will select content from the page and display it for your customers. By providing a crisp, clear and complete meta description for a page, a customer is more likely to trust and click on your site.

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Are you utilizing SEO within your small business website? Adding simple things like page titles, title tags and descriptions will help bring you to the top of search engine results everywhere.