Social Media Consultancy London

Why Treating Your Employees Well is Good for Your Brand (and How to Do It)

There’s one marketing strategy that is very effective, but which seems to be used less and less by employers across pretty much sector. What is it? The strategy whereby you treat your staff really, really well.

That might not seem like a marketing strategy at all,m but hows many times have you been out a parties, events and the like and had someone ask you where you work or what you do for a living? More times than you can remember, I’m sure! Chances are your employees, if you have any, have been asked the same and all of the usual follow up questions about how much they enjoy their work, what they do, etc., too!

Starting to get the picture?If your employees are happy at work and treated very well by you, they will sign your praises to anyone who will listen, which is probably more people than you might think, and you’ll fast get a reputation as a great company that really cares about people – think what that could do for your business!

How to Treat Your Employees Well

If you’re sold on the idea of treating your employees even better, not just for the marketing benefits, but so that you can be a good boss and create a happy working environment too, here are a few things you can do:

Offer Benefits

This is a no-brainer really – the more benefits you offer your employee, whether it be performance related bonuses, employee financial wellbeing services or even something simple like a nicer chair to help with their back problems, the happier they are likely to be and the more positive press you’ll get. It really can be that simple.

Let Them Have Their Say

Looking for something that won’t cost you much, or even anything at all? It’s simple – let your employees have their say, Get them involved in the day to day running of the business; allow them to pitch ideas and actually take them seriously and make changes when it’s clear certain practices aren’t working out well. This will make your employees feel valued, which will almost certainly increase their loyalty to you and your brand. Give it a try, and I bet you see results sooner than you think.

Always Be Honest With Them

As an employer who wants to keep the staff onside, and who cares about the wellbeing of your employees, one of the worst things you can do is lie to them. If you keep quiet about budget cuts, potential redundancies or anything like that it is only likely to build resentment and loosen the bonds of loyalty, which will probably result in some pretty poor PR for you.

Let Them have Freebies

Not only will giving your employees freebies or letting them have very generous discounts keep them happy and loyal to the brand, but it will increase advertising for your products when they show off their newly acquired toys to friends and family too. It’s another no-brainer.

Use any or all of these tactics to ensure your staff are well treated, and they will repay you many times over.

Local Marketing in the Internet Age

When you’re running a business that operates locally, you will undoubtedly still benefit from using online marketing, however, how you go about advertising your business digitally will need to be a little different from how online-only businesses go about it. This is because you will need to focus your efforts much more on one geographic location than they would need to.

If you’re not sure how to approach the marketing of your local business online, here are some tips to help you out:

Make Sure Your Website is Mobile Friendly

Whether you’re a local contract cleaning company, a local bakery or a greengrocers operating in your local market, you need to have a website. Why? Because today, the first thing that most people do is Google for the services they’re interested in and move on from there.

As well as having a good website in place, it is even more important that you make it mobile friendly. You need to do this so that people can use their phones to find you when they’re in the area and looking for a place to go right then and there.

Search Engine Optimise for Your Location

This is a pretty obvious one, but if you’re targeting customers in a particular location, then you need to optimise your website for that location. You can do this by including location specific information to your website, along with the products and/or services you offer locally, using highly targeted keywords to help you along the way. If you have little experience with SEO and marketing, it might be worth seeking professional help. Why? Because this, more than anything else will determine whether your business is amongst the most or least visible online in your area.

Include Your Opening Hours and Address

This should be a no-brainer, but so many local companies neglect to add their opening hours and address to their own website and social media profiles, let along Google and the various local online directories. This is a massive own goal because, even if you do everything you can to get your results to the top of the search engines if people have no way of finding you, then they’re probably going to move on to the next result and go elsewhere.

Include Numerous Points of Contact

It’s always a good idea to make it as easy as possible for your audience to contact you. So, make sure that you provide an email address, phone number, live chat and social media access along with your physical address. This is particularly important if you run a business where your services need to be booked as opposed to, say, a local shop, where people can just walk in.

Post Often on Social Media

Most local people these days tend to look to social media for recommendations, just as much as they do Google, and that’s why it has never been more important that you post regular, interesting posts on social media. This will help to increase your number of followers and the amount of shares you get, which will raise your profile and encourage more locals to do business with you.

Do these things, and you shouldn’t have a problem being seen online!

5 Things Small Business Owners Often Overlook

When you are a small business owner, there are so many different things that you have to consider in the successful running of your company. It is almost guaranteed that you are going to forget one or two of them. Well, in this article, we are going to check out a few of the most commonly overlooked aspects of running a business to find out whether or not you have considered them. Either this will give you peace of mind that you have these things sorted or it will give you a timely reminder to get on top of them!

Legal Representation

You never know when legal representation may come in useful during the life of your business, but they can provide you with advice that proves to be invaluable somewhere down the line. Try to get as many free consultations as you can so you can weigh up all the options available to you. If you can choose one that specialises in your specific area of business, this is even better as you can be more assured that they have the relevant experience and credentials.

Employee Retention

When you start running a business, often so much thought goes into hiring employees in the first place that you don’t consider retaining them so much. At some point down the line, you need to entice them with more than just a basic salary by offering benefits such as holidays, retirement plans, and other perks of the job. You should also consider building flexibility into the job as this is something that more and more employees are after.

Insurance Costs

Of course, it is always a good idea to be optimistic in business, but times will inevitably get tough somewhere along the road. So, cover your assets when disaster strikes by ensuring that you have all the relevant types of insurance. Make sure that you are covered for all the different eventualities and circumstances that may occur as the last thing that you want to find is that you aren’t covered.

Software Tools

Software is such an integral part of the modern business, and there are so many tools out there that can make your life that little bit easier. HR Management Software will cover this often overlooked aspect of business, while accountancy software will ensure that your finances are taken care of systematically. Choose the software carefully by checking out what people are saying online or speaking to other business owners who already use it.

Customer Payments

Surprising as it may seem, many business owners are not as focused as they need to be about making sure that they get paid on time. All your invoices need to have clear payment dates, and you should be on top of all of them so that customers aren’t taking you for a ride.

If you have read through this list and feel like you are overlooking any of these things, now is the time to make a change to ensure that successful running of your business.