Does Popularity Equate to More Business?

by Mark Bloom | Feb 4, 2020 | Agency Advice

Do Popular Companies Get More Business?

In school, the popular kids always seemed to be the most successful. They were often smart, funny and attractive. Maybe they were outstanding athletes. Maybe they also got good grades. They were adored and envied by everyone, including teachers.

Do popular companies get more business?

Does the same hold true for businesses? Think of popular businesses, such as Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Google, Microsoft, even Facebook and Twitter. Each one of these companies is (or in some cases, was) led by a charismatic leader. Therefore, you’d assume that popular companies do get more business.

There’s More to the Story

Popularity in business today is measured in likes, mentions, followers and clicks. These are among the many metrics tracked and logged by search engine optimization specialists. Touted as showing market penetration, each like, mention, follower and click is collated according to age, gender, location and even income level. Big data is the means through which businesses measure their popularity.

In this kind of popularity contest, the goal isn’t necessarily to get more business, but to exceed your competitors’ numbers. It’s no longer a means to an end, but an end to itself. If being popular were the ultimate goal in business, you’d see fewer accountants and more marketers. There would be bigger and bigger discounts to woo fans — because the team with the most fans wins, right?

Comparing Businesses to Sports Teams

In some ways, companies and sports teams are similar:

Both put an enormous effort into branding and name recognition.
Both actively engage in winning and keeping fans.
If successful, both enjoy a solid foundation of diehard fanatics.
Sports teams, like businesses, need positive media coverage.
Sports teams have a devoted local following, similar to successful brick-and-mortar businesses.
The most popular teams, like companies, are considered winners almost no matter what they do, unless and until they make an egregious marketing error.

But in other important ways, the two differ wildly. For example:

Sports teams can experience a bad year — or even a bad decade — and still be a viable enterprise; businesses can only sustain a certain number of annual losses before they have to throw in the towel.
Sports fans still attend games, even if it’s to root for the competition.
Sports teams, unlike businesses, need wins on the field to give their fans something to cheer about.
A championship trophy can sustain fans for a decade; business must constantly adapt and grow — their fans more commonly ask, “What have you done for me lately?”
Even though they are businesses, sports franchises don’t measure success in dollars. All other companies don’t measure success in wins.

The Value of Popularity

Businesses spend hundreds to thousands of dollars every month on social media. Some post daily or even hourly. And then there’s the responsibility of responding to comments. It takes time and money to manage an active social media account. Now multiply that by 10, to include all the various social media platforms, and you get an idea of the true cost.

But what’s the true value of those likes, mentions, followers and clicks? Do they actually funnel real people toward sales? The answer is complicated, but it relies less on likes and followers and more on website traffic.

Does Popularity Get More Business for Companies?

Social media generates brand awareness, no doubt, as it gets a business’s name in front of millions of people, if they’re successful. Social media is also a great place to manage a business’s customer experience. In the very public platform of social media, your business can mitigate complaints and foster ambassadors. All of these are positive things.

But most ecommerce takes place on a company’s website. So website traffic and online sales tell the story. To get more business, a company has to urge social media followers and fans to visit their website. Without that connection, being popular is no more relevant than being named Mark.

Tipping the Scales

The final part of the equation to get more business is balancing the cost of all social media engagement to actual sales from all that activity. It’s great if your company can generate $10,000 in gross revenue from social media contacts. But it’s substantially less exciting if you’re paying $8,000 a month to maintain that website presence. It’s still a win in terms of hard numbers, but the ratio isn’t promising.

Of course, it depends where you are in the cycle. If you’re just starting your social media campaign, you may have nowhere to go but up. But if you’ve been at it for a year, that $10,000 in revenue may represent the high-water mark. There are factors to explore, such as reducing the costs while maintaining the revenue stream. Only you, as the business owner, can determine if it’s worth continuing in this case.

Popularity, in general, doesn’t get more business for your company. It is only a sign of brand awareness and brand acceptance. Both of those are positives, but they don’t always translate into more profits. Beware the social media game.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

Are You Charging Enough in Your Business?

by Elle Ray | Jan 28, 2020 | Agency Advice

Find the Sweet Spot in How Much to Charge

Balance how much to charge

This topic may not seem in line with the theme of the month, which is “Give Compliments Freely,” but it really is. The conundrum of figuring out how much to charge for your work is full of innuendo and flat-out esteem issues. For if you can’t compliment yourself for a job well done and charge accordingly, then why should anyone else praise your efforts and pay you accordingly?

In a politically correct world, many assume that it’s just not polite to admire yourself too much. Self-adulation often is construed as egotism or self-aggrandizing behavior. In fact, it’s a necessary and healthy ingredient in the mix of a successful web designer, content writer, project manager or small business owner.

What the Market Will Bear

In the field of web development — and for everyone who works within the industry — fees for services vary widely. When you seek answers for how much to charge from an LA or NYC business, you’ll get a wildly different answer than from someone working in the middle of Missouri. Even within the same locale, fees for web content of every kind swing up and down like a monkey in the trees, at least based on our experience at Ray Access.

So while business schools always advise you to investigate the marketplace and base your fees on what that market will bear, that’s not always a reliable measuring stick when it comes to web development or content writing. For one thing, most of us can work from anywhere in the world. We have a writer, for instance, who lives in Costa Rica half the year; he says our rate of pay allows him to live like a king there, but barely covers his rent back home.

Your competition hails from around the world, too. Content writers in India, for example, charge much, much less than Ray Access for similar word counts — and Ray Access offers one of the lowest rates in the U.S. Granted, the quality is never as good, but some clients shop only for bargains. At the same time, great writers in Kansas can charge less than great writers in San Francisco merely by virtue of the cost of living at the different locations.

What You Can Bear

Instead, how much to charge for your web services should be based on two primary indicators:

How much do you need?
How valuable is your product or service?

Most website content developers and providers charge by the project. Clients have an easier time with their website budgets when they have a total cost projection in hand. And you aren’t plagued by a client bothering you about going over budget. Common wisdom then supposes that you should figure out how much to charge by first deciding how much you need to make per hour of hands-on work to pay your bills, including coverage for overhead.

It may take a little experience to get right, but the second step involves determining how long a certain project will take you. Multiply those hours by your needs and that’s the bottom line figure for how much to charge.

Show Your True Value

Putting your true value into the equation takes a bit more finesse, as well as an ability to negotiate effectively. A bottom line should be just that — the least amount you can receive and still stay in business. So if you have to earn an average of $50 an hour to live comfortably and continue to run your business effectively, then you really need to charge enough to cover that need or you’ll soon be out of business and looking for a guaranteed hourly wage.

How often, how much and how effectively you compliment yourself on the quality of your work comes into play as you figure out how much to charge — and feel good about it. You can fill your website with all the testimonials in the world, but if you don’t honestly believe that your work is valuable, then you’ll have difficulty building a nice profit into your fee structure.

Knowing how much to charge is a delicate balancing act that takes in all the variables. It’s not an easy answer and one that keeps many small business owners up at night. Experience and necessity, coupled with a healthy dose of self-approval, gets you to a place where you become comfortable with your rates — and clients will sense your determination and pay you accordingly.

Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business to succeed. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters, and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.

The Cost of a Mistake

by Elle Ray | Jan 14, 2020 | Agency Advice

Minimize the Cost of a Mistake by Preparing

You need to believe in your professional self. That means you need to know that the quality of your work is well worth the price you charge. This is a tenet of the Top 10 Principles for Successful Website Creators, as proposed by Ray Access in October 2019. And while perfection is the ideal in any endeavor, particularly in your professional work, it’s largely a pipe dream.

Don't let the cost of a mistake send you to an early grave.

The cost of perfectionism is actually far worse than the cost of a mistake. According to an article in Psychology Today, being rigid and unforgiving leads to a host of personal and professional complications, including:

Reduced problem-solving skills
Depression
Anger
Insomnia
Procrastination
Anxiety
High blood pressure

Stress Not

Stressing out over the cost of a mistake violates the first tenet of the Principles of Success philosophy: Take care of yourself first. While the cost of a mistake may hit you financially, the cost to your health, overall well-being and ability to carry on despite setbacks is far worse. As novelist Anne Lamott beautifully says:

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

Setting extraordinarily high expectations for yourself and your employees — or for that matter, anyone in your life — only leads to eventual disappointment. Humans are fallible and will make mistakes. The key to a healthy lifestyle and a successful business is not to let cost of a mistake stress you to the point of illness, but to find the lesson in the error. Learning how to handle a mistake is far more important than avoiding mistakes at all costs.

Get ‘Er Done

Perfectionists too often end up putting off important projects or missing deadlines because they stress about achieving that loftiest of goals. As a result, nothing gets done or it takes twice as long to complete. Instead of falling into this trap, try to temper your need for perfection. Minimize the cost of a mistake by taking positive steps to admit and correct an error, honor your promises to clients and learn from the process.

Part of never missing a deadline is about knowing when your work is good enough. That doesn’t mean you can skimp on quality; it means you must keep your deadline in mind as you work. Meeting a deadline, despite small potential mistakes, is more important than keeping a client waiting.

Expectations in American Culture

Being a perfectionist is wrapped up in the American culture. And while the cost of a very large mistake may cost you a client, you can save the client relationship by learning how to handle a mistake, large or small. This tactic may help the future of your career as well.

Pride and ego often are the first to feel the blow when you’re caught with a mistake. And those often are the main culprits behind handling the situation poorly. But your clients and staff don’t really care about your ego and care even less that it’s been damaged. They care about results. As professor Brené Brown said:

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy achievement and growth; it’s a shield.

Make It Right

The cost of a mistake doesn’t have to mean the end of the world as you know it. It doesn’t have to translate into failure. The cost doesn’t even have to mean the end of a relationship. In fact, the strongest professional relationships are based on honesty and trust. Your best clients know that you’ll always do your best and take care of errors quickly and effectively.

Granted, it’s always best to take every precaution to avoid costly errors. Ray Access, for example, employs a stringent editing process before sending a finished project to a client. But instead of wallowing, giving up or beating your breast, take steps to rectify your error and reduce the cost of a mistake by:

Admitting your mistake and taking responsibility for it
Apologizing for the error
Allowing your client to vent without getting upset yourself
Giving your client time to think about a response
Listening to that response without getting defensive
Taking immediate action to fix the error — never at a charge!

Keep your clients happy. Let them know they can trust that you’ll do what you say. And make sure to follow up quickly when you make a mistake. Follow the sage advice of Benjamin Franklin to:

“Never ruin an apology with an excuse.”

It’s Not Brain Surgery, But…

by Mark Bloom | Jan 6, 2020 | Agency Advice

Believe in Yourself and in Your Website Work

Believe in yourself and in your website work

One of the great things about working within the internet industry is that our work rarely puts lives at risk. We’re not brain surgeons or air traffic controllers. We never harm any animals in the course of doing our jobs. We simply create valuable websites that help businesses thrive.

But that doesn’t mean what we do isn’t important. In our own way, we support and enable the economy, both in the United States and beyond its borders. While it’s nice to see that Amazon had its most lucrative holiday shopping season ever in 2019, the fact is that small businesses contribute about 44 percent to the U.S. economy. The online world of commerce grows every year, and website professionals — even those who just do small business projects — help drive that growth.

Yay, Us!

So take pride in your work. Believe in yourself with each new website project you undertake. Try something new and learn something new. Every time you move the needle of best practices forward, everyone wins, especially you and your clients.

What you do matters, both to businesses and consumers. And when you believe in yourself, you tend to do your best work. Consider the value of what you provide your clients, such as:

Easy-to-navigate websites
Intuitive new designs and conventions
Attractive new color combinations and compelling imagery
Search engine rankings, despite a constantly moving target
Valuable, clearly articulated information on particular industries and businesses

Keep Your Eye on the Big Picture

But those of us who work in the online realm — and we’re speaking to all the website developers, SEO experts, graphic designers, content providers and project managers out there — occasionally get sucked into the minutiae of our jobs. Tiny tasks that take all our time seem to grow in importance until we lose sight of the big picture. It’s a natural phenomenon for industry specialists.

Yet every website project can impact the industry. Remember that the internet as it now exists is only 20 or so years old, still in its infancy. What will websites look like 20 years from now? It’s up to you to determine that with every new job. While it’s not brain surgery, it does involve inventing the future, and that’s a significant responsibility.

You’ve Got to Believe in Yourself

When you believe in your ability to get the job done, you can go beyond the basics. Anyone can build a website today, so it takes a master like you to do something truly extraordinary. That’s the value Ray Access brings to its clients. Anyone can write a web page or blog post, but this content company — composed of experienced writers and editors, including former journalists — produces content that exceeds what others can create because:

We only use substantiated, authoritative sources for our research.
Our writers have proven their mettle over hundreds of projects.
All our work is edited multiple times to ensure the highest quality and a consistent tone.
We stay on top of search engine trends, using keywords and synonyms appropriately.

We believe in ourselves, as you should believe in yourself. Appreciate the value you deliver to your clients and to the world. Improve with every project, and you can set the bar in your specialty. When you strive to be the best at what you do, you can change the world for the better.

How to Find Out If They’re a Good Fit

by Mark Bloom | Dec 23, 2019 | Agency Advice

Listen for Clues from Your Employees & Clients

Business owners, project managers and marketing directors may not always speak the same language, but they’ve got to learn to communicate to do their specific jobs. If you run a business or you’re in charge of a project, you want to deal with people who have the same basic values and principles as you do. In general, there are two maxims that reflect this attitude:

People do business with people and companies they like. If you don’t think this is true, consider all the business British Petroleum (BP) lost after its oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Most people support the businesses they respect and want to succeed.
When everyone’s on the same page, business flows smoothly and effortlessly. In an ideal world, your marketing department speaks to your web development team. Everyone in your company is working toward the same goals. If you talk at people, you don’t listen for clues of understanding.

To find out if the people you’re dealing with in business are a good fit for you and your company, you need to listen for clues when you meet for the first time. Probe a little and know what you’re looking for in their answers. This may sound like a job for a psychology or management graduate, but you can master the technique by adopting some simple steps.

Listen for clues to decide who's a good fit

Choose Committed Employees and Likable Clients

You may entertain the notion that hiring the right employees, signing the best contractors, choosing the most reliable vendors and finding the easiest clients to work with are completely distinct processes. You’re wrong. All of these things — which nearly every business does — are related more closely than you may realize.

Yes, you have to master some listening skills to really hear what people say to you, but the first step in that process is knowing what to listen for. When you listen for clues, you pick them up effortlessly, which feeds your decision-making process, whether it involves a client, a contractor, a vendor or an employee.

Tips for Making the Best Connections

Learning anything new is a process. Learning to listen for clues is the same. Follow these steps to hire more dedicated employees and sign up clients who are easier to work with:

Identify your company values. Before you can align with someone else’s values, you have to know your own. Spend the time necessary to come up with a list of values that matter to you as the business owner or project manager. It’s usually something other than the bottom line. It may involve quality, education, satisfaction or challenges. Whatever it is, make sure you not only know it, but keep it in the forefront of your mind for every business transaction.
Keep a list of what you’re seeking. When you’re hiring, you most likely have a list of duties and responsibilities. That’s the easy part. Now consider what you’re looking for in the person you want to hire. Timeliness? Courtesy? Professionalism? Reasonableness? Eager? Teachable? Whatever you want, make sure it’s on the list. Now you know what you’re looking for — and what questions to ask in an interview.
Consider communication styles. People communicate differently, just as people learn differently. When you’re cognizant of your preferred communication style, find others who match that style. It speeds up your communication and makes it clearer. For example, do you ask a lot of questions? Do you appreciate someone who does or do you find it annoying? Your answers tell you what to look for in an employee, contractor, vendor and even a client.
Know your management style. If you’re hands-off in your management approach, you expect employees to ask if they don’t understand an assignment. If you’re hands-on, you actively check to make sure your charges understand what’s expected of them. These are two very different management styles. Wherever you fall along the spectrum, find others who can fill the role that’s best for you. Listen for clues about how they work, and this applies to every business relationship.
Ask the right questions. Once you’ve done the preliminary work, you have a much better idea what you’re looking for from an employee, contractor, vendor or client. During your interview process, ask pointed questions about expectations and work processes. Go directly to the issues that matter to you to explore their values and to set expectations. Listen for clues and watch their body language. Most of what people communicate is non-verbal.
Get everyone on board. When you hire a new employee or sign on a new client, talk to your partner or your team. Collect everyone’s input and make sure everyone feels heard. When you bring your team together toward one decision, everyone lands on the same page of positive expectations. If an issue arose during the interview or contract stage, everyone shares an awareness of the issue and is better prepared to handle related problems. It’s more than communication; it’s preparation.
Check references. Before you make an offer to a new employee, contractor or vendor, check all possible references. You may learn something new or you may confirm something you suspected. Before you sign up a new client, do your due diligence. Speak to your point-of-contact. Check the Better Business Bureau for non-payment or other issues. This extra work prevents future headaches.

Solving Problems Before They Become Problems

Consider the internal problems two distinct businesses face when they merge. If the company cultures clash, a power struggle for supremacy may rip the merged company apart. When America Online and Time Warner merged, the process hurt both businesses. That’s what makes international business so fraught with peril. When cultures collide, you’re not sure how to listen for clues to read the people you’re dealing with.

Business is tough enough. Make it as easy as possible in your business relationships. When you’re dealing with people you like, everything may become easier and more enjoyable!

The Rewards of a Better Product or Service

by Elle Ray | Dec 16, 2019 | Agency Advice

The Benefits of Being Better Lead to Satisfaction

One of the benefits of being better is feeling like you're on the top of the world

You’d think that one of the most important benefits of being better than your competition is that you get more business. Clients, especially those that demand the best, recognize your value and flock to you for your services and products. As a result, you garner better reviews, gain more referrals and enjoy higher profits.

Or do you? Just because you believe you have the best product or service on the market — or in the world, for that matter — that doesn’t mean the marketplace agrees. Remember that customers don’t necessarily seek out the best every time they shop. Have you ever filled out an RFP? Haven’t you ever lost a big job because your prices were undercut by an inferior competitor?

The Real Benefits of Being Better

Feeling good about yourself and your offerings is an important aspect to consider when you’re seeking the rewards of success. You’re got to be able to sleep at night, knowing you’ve done your best and that you’re providing an exceptional service to your clients. More importantly, however, is the energy you exude that comes from passion. After all, no one achieves any level of reward by thinking great thoughts or having brilliant ideas when they have no follow up, no game or no action.

As business owners, web developers and project managers know, hard work wins the day. The most successful entrepreneurs — the creators of winning companies, people who believe in the benefits of being better — put enormous time and energy into developing their companies. Consider, for example, those who believed passionately in their skills and abilities to produce a better product and who ultimately reaped enormous rewards:

Mark Zuckerberg didn’t come up with any new, unique ideas, but he committed the time and imagination to tweak and refine his products. He actually saw the benefits of being better instead of just dreaming about them.
Steve Jobs was known for his all-consuming work ethic. He surrounded himself with employees who shared his desire to succeed through hard work.
Bill Gates was never afraid to challenge his own perception of perfection. He stayed true to his commitment to being better, to making his already successful products and services even better.
Vince Lombardi knew that the only way to true success was through hard work and dedication. He told his players that the benefits of being better come with wins and losses.

Perhaps Thomas Edison said it best when he extolled the virtues of a solid work ethic as the only way to reap the rewards and benefits of being better:

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment, and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”

Smoother Business Practices

While business owners and project managers strive to achieve the rewards and benefits of being better — reaping the accolades and money that often comes with that distinction — other important benefits come with the power of passion and hard work, such as:

Creativity abounds, which drives continuous improvement
Knowledge and the need to know more spurs further innovation
Intelligent decisions inevitably lead to effective marketing and increased sales
Persistence carries the day even when motivation falters
Confidence grows with each small success
Winners who exhibit passion and values attract talented employees

Successful results bring in more referrals and attention than any amount of magic, luck or low prices. The true rewards of building a product or service come with time; they don’t appear overnight or in a vacuum. And whether you reach your ideal goals of success or not, you’ll sleep better at night, knowing you’ve reaped the true rewards of being the best you can be.

« Older Entries

Next Entries »