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How to Treat Your Interns Right

May 23rd, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

The end of the school year is here, and that means it’s time for many small businesses to turn to a valuable labor source: interns. Hiring college students to work in your business, learning the ropes, is a rite of passage for students and small business owners alike, and can give you access to the energy, enthusiasm and tech skills of young people who can contribute a lot to your business.

But a growing number of companies, emboldened by the recession, are taking more than they’re giving from their interns. The New York Times recently reported on the growing practice of companies offering unpaid internships, having interns work 12 hours or more and using them solely for “grunt work” like fetching lunch and filing.

These aren’t just college students, either. The Times reports a growing number of college graduates are clamoring for internships in a tough labor market where the jobless rate for college grads age 24 and under is now 9.4 percent.

Are you exploiting your interns? Yes, entry-level work has always involved some degree of fetching and carrying, but if your internships aren’t offering anything of value, you could be running afoul of the law.

The major area to consider is whether your internships are paid or unpaid. State labor laws regulate this, so you first need to determine whether your state requires paying interns. If your state does allow unpaid internships, you also need to comply with federal Labor Department regulations.

In general, this means that:

Unpaid interns must gain some type of vocational education from the internship.
The internship is for the benefit of the interns.
Interns can’t be used as substitutes for regular employees; instead, they have to be supervised by employees.
The employer cannot derive immediate benefit from the intern’s work.

An unpaid internship may seem like a lot of trouble for you in the beginning, but if you handle it right, you can end up training someone who could become a valuable employee in the future. Stay on the right side of the law, and your company will be a desirable place for interns. Run afoul of the law, and you could ruin more than your business’s reputation.

Image by Flickr user Jessica Mullens (Creative Commons)

Tags: business law, Compliance, small business, Workforce
Posted in Business Law, Compliance, Small Business, small business, Workforce | No Comments »

How Your Business Can Profit From Retail Showrooming

May 21st, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

The proliferation of mobile devices—and shopping or price comparison apps to use on them—has retailers worried that consumers are using their stores as “showrooms” to check out merchandise, then go online on their phones or tablets to find the same product cheaper elsewhere. But a new study from Wave Collapse, reported in MediaPost, suggests that worry about showrooming may be overblown.

The study found that people who use shopping apps in-store to research products or compare prices aren’t necessarily more likely to go online to buy—they’re simply more avid shoppers in general, across all channels. In fact, 93 percent of those who used apps in stores also reported buying something at a physical retail store in the last week, compared to 84 percent of people who didn’t use shopping apps in stores.

While the research may ease your fears that people are standing in your store, checking out your products and then buying the same thing on Amazon for less, the news still doesn’t mean you can relax. Wave Collapse found that many people who use smartphones in-store aren’t looking for the same products online—they’re seeing if they’re available at other, nearby physical stores. In other words, they’re doing what they’ve always done—comparison shopping—but they can just do it faster now.

Wave Collapse’s data also shows that smartphone shoppers are desirable customers who aren’t limited to mobile purchasing. Some one-fourth of smartphone owners report buying a product on their mobile devices in the past week, 60 percent report buying something online, and 87 percent report buying something in a physical location.

It boils down to this: Mobile shoppers are power shoppers, whether online, on the phone or in the store. So if you see a customer whipping out a phone in your shop, don’t get grumpy. Get over and offer to help them by:

Providing more information about the product
Offering additional help such as setup or delivery
Explaining extras such as warranties and other offerings that might set you apart from the competition
Offering to find or order the product for them in a different size, color or style

Recognize mobile shoppers as power customers, and treat them accordingly.

Image by Flickr user whiteafrican (Creative Commons)

Tags: Marketing, sales process, small business, Technology
Posted in Marketing, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Technology, Web Design | No Comments »

Why Social Media Users Are Your Most Valuable Customers

May 18th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

You know social media can help spread the word about your business. But did you know customers who are active on social media are more valuable to your business because of it? That’s one of the findings of the 2012 American Express Global Customer Service Barometer.

While customers in general care more about good customer service than last year, and are willing to spend more money to get it, the stakes are even higher for businesses dealing with social media users. American Express found that people who have used social media for customer service at least once in the last year are willing to spend substantially more (21 percent) with companies they believe provide great service – in contrast with the general population (13 percent more) and those who have not used social media for customer service (11 percent more).

People who use social media for customer service are also much more vocal about customer service experiences, both good and bad. If they have a positive customer service experience, they’ll tell an average of 42 people about it; in contrast, consumers overall tell an average of 15. For negative experiences, the numbers are even bigger. People who use social media for customer service tell an average of 53 people about negative experiences; in contrast, the average user tells 24 people.

Consumers who use social media for customer service also have higher expectations for customer service in general. More than 80 percent of them have failed to complete a planned purchase because of a poor service experience, compared to 55 percent of consumers overall.

In addition, consumers who use social media for customer service are more likely to

Why do consumers use social media for customer service? The most popular social reasons were:

Seeking an actual response from a company about a service issue – 50 percent
Praising a company for a great service experience – 48 percent
Sharing information about your service experience with a wider audience – 47 percent Venting frustration about a poor service experience – 46 percent
Asking other users how to have better service experiences – 43 percent

Clearly, using social media for customer service can have a big effect on your business—both positive and negative. If you find customers reaching out to you this way, be sure to be responsive to their needs, because you can be sure they’ll spread the word—either good or bad.

Image by Flickr user sjcockell (Creative Commons)

Tags: sales process, small business, social media
Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media | No Comments »

Who’s Using Daily Deals—and How Can You Lure Them to Your Business?

May 16th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

Do you use daily deal sites like Groupon and LivingSocial to lure customers to try your business? A new study from Edison Research, The Daily Deals Consumer 2012, offers some useful insights into who’s using these services, why and the potential impact on your brand and business. Here’s a closer look.

Nearly one in six Americans (15 percent) use daily deal services. Daily deal users are primarily in the 25 to 54 age group; two-thirds are women; and they have a higher than average household income.

Daily deal sites are most popular in the South, where 45 percent of users are located. Next comes the West with 22 percent of users, the Midwest with 20 percent, and the Northeast with just 13 percent.

Groupon is by far the most popular daily deal site, with 83 percent of daily deals users registered there. Forty-four percent use LivingSocial, and 12 percent use “other.”

More than half of users are relatively new to daily deals, having joined in the past year. Since they started using daily deals, most users (48 percent) say their purchasing habits have remained fairly steady, but 32 percent are using deals less often than when they first started, while 14 percent are using them more often.

Deals work–only 6 percent say they have signed up but never purchased a deal. As to how well they work, there’s good news and bad news. While 28 percent of users say they’ve tried a new business because of a deal, then continued to patronize it without a deal, 30 percent say they’ve tried new businesses once, but never gone back, and 28 percent say they use deals from businesses they already patronize. Daily deals can be a good way to get new customers, but you’ve got to work to earn their loyalty beyond the deal.

Daily deal users were substantially more likely than average consumers to own a smartphone or tablet. Because they’re so mobile, there are opportunities to reach out to them with “just-in-time” deals that are local and mobile.

Daily deal users spend more time online than average consumers (3.34 hours per day, as opposed to the average of 2.25), and 85 percent go online at work. They’re also far more likely to choose the Internet over other forms of media, such as radio, TV and newspapers. In fact, they’re also more likely to listen to Internet radio and watch online videos, which could lead to cross-platform promotional opportunities.

Not surprisingly, daily deal users are far more likely to have social media accounts than non-daily deal users, and spend more time there. Some 83 percent are on Facebook, 40 percent are on LinkedIn, 20 percent are on Twitter and 20 percent are on Google+. They are also twice as likely to follow companies or brands on social media. When you get a daily deal user hooked on your business, you have a great opportunity to reach their friends and family circles as well.

How are you using daily deals in your business?

Image by Flickr user Taro Taylor (Creative Commons)

Tags: Email marketing, Marketing, Search Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Business Development, Email Marketing, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Search Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media | No Comments »

There’s Good News and Bad News About the Small Business Economy

May 15th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Karen Axelton

Are small businesses taking a cue from the nation’s consumers—in other words, borrowing less and paying down debts? That seems to be the case based on two separate reports out from PayNet.

The latest Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index declined in March, which could indicate slowing in the nation’s economic growth. The Index tracks the overall volume of lending to small businesses nationwide. In March, it declined to 98.5, down from 101.8 in February. Although small business borrowing did increase 10 percent compared to the same time last year, that is the smallest 12-month growth rate since January 2011.

On the plus side, a separate indicator from PayNet, its most recent 30+/90+ Day Delinquency report, found that small businesses are having no trouble paying off their debts. The report, which uses real-time datat to measure the percentage of loans to small and medium-sized businesses that are past due by 30 or more days and 90 or more days, found that accounts in moderate delinquency (late 30 days or more) dropped to 1.39 percent in March, down from 1.47 percent in February. At their height in May 2009 these accounts hit 4.42 percent.

Accounts in severe delinquency (late 90 days or more) hit a record low of 0.34 percent in March. That’s down from 0.36 percent in February. And accounts in default (late 180 days or more) dropped to 0.48 percent in March, down from 0.50 percent in February.

There’s good news and bad news in these two reports. Clearly, the fact that business delinquency is down is a positive sign for the health of the nation’s small businesses. At the same time, the lack of interest in borrowing could indicate small businesses are either feeling uncertain about the nation’s economy, have given up on getting the financing they need, or are feeling too cautious to expand their companies.

What financial steps are you taking in your business these days? Are you focused on debt repayment, or on expansion financing?

Image by Flickr user Vectorportal (Creative Commons)

Tags: accounting, Capital Access, Raising Capital, small business, taxes
Posted in Accounting and Taxes, Capital Access, Compliance, Raising Capital, Small Business, small business, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Are You Ready for the New Mobile Shopper?

May 14th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

U.S. consumers are more likely than consumers in other nations to shop online—and increasingly, they’re using mobile devices to shop online, according to the recently released Global Online Shopper Report, conducted by WorldPay and reported in Internet Retailer.

The study found that U.S. consumers spend an average of 23 percent of their disposable income on online purchases—above the overall average of 22 percent for consumers in all 15 countries that were surveyed. They also spend an average of 5.4 hours a month shopping online—above the global average of 5 hours.

The survey covered the three months prior to March 2012, and found that among customers who had made a purchase online during that time, 53 percent had used a smartphone or tablet to buy clothes, 46 percent had used a smartphone or tablet to buy books and 42 percent had used a smartphone or tablet to buy DVDs or online games.

Of course, purchasers of books or games could be simply downloading ebooks or games to use on their mobile devices. But to me, the fact that more than half of shoppers are buying clothes with their mobile devices shows a sea change is underway.

The report took a closer look at m-commerce spending among people who are “heavy spenders” online (spending 30 percent or more of their disposable income online) and who owned mobile devices. Fifty-one percent of U.S. “heavy spenders” had made purchases on a smartphone and 55 percent had done so on a tablet. Globally, the figures were even higher, with 55 percent of heavy spenders having bought something via smartphone and 67 percent having done so on a tablet.

Other findings in the report:

95 percent of e-commerce purchases worldwide are made at home;
59 percent of online U.S. consumers watch TV while shopping online;
The most common time of day for online shopping among U.S. consumers is 10:30 a.m.

With online shopping rapidly moving mobile, it’s no surprise that the new Small Business Mobile Survey from Web.com found that 69 percent of small businesses say mobile marketing will be crucial to their growth in the next five years, and 64 percent plan to increase their investment in mobile marketing this year.

You can find a full copy of the Web.com Small Business Mobile report and Infographic at http://bit.ly/JwvrMU. Help your friends in the small business community go mobile during National Small Business Month by sharing this report on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn using the hashtag #smbmobile.

Image by Flickr user Lululemon Athletica (Creative Commons)

Tags: Marketing, mobile marketing, small business, Technology, Web Design
Posted in Marketing, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Uncategorized, Web Design | No Comments »

Why You Should Be Marketing to Women Online

May 11th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

It’s long been the stereotype that women are more “social” than men—in the offline world, they’re typically the ones who plan social events, keep family connections going and love to chat. Apparently, when it comes to the online world, women are even more social, according to a new study by Nielsen reported in The Atlantic.

Here are some of the findings:

Compared to the average online adult, women are 8 percent more likely to have a personal blog. Men are 9 percent less likely to have one.

Compared to the average online adult, women are 18 percent more likely to like or follow brands on social media sites. Men are 21 percent less likely to do so.

Compared to the average online adult, women are 6 percent more likely to have at least one social media account. Men are 7 percent less likely.

Not only are women more likely to get social online, they’re more likely to buy online. Compared to the average online adult, women were 12 percent more likely to have purchased a product they saw on TV. Men were 14 percent less likely.

What do these statistics mean for your business? If you’re marketing to women—and I sure hope you are—you need to get active where they are.

Reach out to women through social media accounts for your business and your brands. Create posts and content that resonates with women.

Find out which influential women in your industry or market have blogs of their own. Comment on them and encourage the bloggers to check out your own site or blog.

Don’t forget about women in business. Social media can be a powerful tool for selling BtoB to female decision-makers or women small business owners.

Connect your website, your print or offline marketing and your social media accounts so it’s easy for customers who see your product or service somewhere else to find you and buy from you.

Get active on rating and review sites, and encourage reviews from your customers. Respond to reviews in a positive manner and be part of the conversation.

By targeting women where they live today—online—you can raise your business’s profile and your sales.

Image by Flickr user Jerry Bunkers (Creative Commons)

Tags: Marketing, sales process, small business, social media
Posted in Branding, Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media, Uncategorized, Web Design | No Comments »

How to Keep Your Ecommerce Customers From Abandoning Their Shopping Carts

May 9th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

Do you despair over the high percentage of ecommerce shopping carts that go abandoned on your site? You might be worrying unnecessarily. Website conversion company SeeWhy reported that the shopping cart abandonment rate rose in 2011 (as it has for the past three years) and predicts this trend will continue in 2012. Why? SeeWhy says consumers are simply becoming more sophisticated about shopping online, meaning they’re more likely to fill carts, seek deals and leave their carts for prolonged periods either as “wish lists” or because they can’t find acceptable discounts for the items.

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do about abandoned carts. In fact, smart marketers look at them as an opportunity to convert to a sale. Here are some of the strategies you can try:

Remind them. You can send reminders via email to alert customers about an empty cart. Provide links consumers can use to follow up with you if the cart was abandoned due to a technical difficulty with your site, or because they had questions about a product. Season the pot with a discounted offer, if you like. Time is of the essence; aim to send the reminder within 4 hours of cart abandonment.

Advertise. If you use online advertising such as Google AdWords, you can “remarket” by using a conversion code so that remarketing ads (featuring the products customers were looking at) show up on the AdWords network. This keeps the products top-of-mind so consumers don’t forget their carts.

Don’t empty carts too soon. It’s a good idea to keep abandoned carts active for at least 60 days. With customers spending more time shopping online these days, you may need to be patient to grab the sale.

Consider the big picture. If you have a high percentage of abandoned carts that never get checked out, assess whether your checkout process is too complex, confusing or time-consuming. Make sure customers can easily get answers to questions about tax, shipping costs and delivery times without going through several steps of the checkout process. Make FAQs, customer service phone numbers and instant chat options easy to find.

Abandoned shopping carts don’t necessarily represent a lost sale. Treated correctly, they can represent opportunity for your business—as long as you know how to handle them.

Image by Flickr user Adele Prince (Creative Commons)

Tags: ecommerce, Marketing, sales process, small business, Technology
Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Web Design | 1 Comment »

How and Why to Use Mobile Marketing to Reach Your BtoB Customers

May 7th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

We’re hearing a lot about mobile marketing these days, with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets. But while most of the talk is about consumers and their changing shopping habits, it’s equally important for BtoB marketers to realize their customers’ behavior is changing, too.

For years, business decision-makers have relied on smartphones to get stuff done on the go. The advent of tablets, and their increasing adoption with the introduction of the latest iPad over the holiday season, has only accelerated the trend. Enterprises are adding tablets for their teams or, if they aren’t, a growing number of employees and executives are just showing up with their tablets and expecting to use them for work purposes (BYOD, or “bring your own device”).

Busy execs, in particular, are taking to tablets and using them for all types of purposes, from catching up on their industry reading to giving presentations to watching videos to taking notes during meetings. How can you take advantage of the fact that decision-makers are spending more time on their tablets?

Make sure your website is optimized for mobile viewing. You’d be surprised how few entrepreneurs do this. According to Web.com‘s recent Small Business Mobile Survey, only 26 percent of small business owners have a mobile-friendly website ( the same layout/content as standard site adjusted to suit a smartphone screen), and just 14 percent have a stand-alone mobile site. Of those who do have a stand-alone mobile site, however, a whopping 84 percent saw an increase in sales as a result. Consider both tablets and smartphones, and be sure to include all platforms. Although the iPad is by far the dominant tablet, when it comes to smartphones, the market is less clear-cut and, especially in big business, many execs still rely on BlackBerry smartphones.

Consider adding a mobile app. BtoB apps need to be useful and solve a problem your customers have by making a process more fun, easier or faster. Think about how typical activities your customers engage in could translate into apps, or how apps can make it simpler to communicate with your business.

Look into mobile advertising. With more execs reading and researching on the go, you may want to move part of your ad budget into mobile. True, you might not be able to afford an ad in the mobile version of The Wall Street Journal, but think about running ads in the mobile versions of your industry’s key trade publications or in their mobile apps.

Get visual. The popularity of video online is skyrocketing, and today’s tablets with their crystal-clear displays are ideal for video viewing. Think about creating short videos demonstrating your product or service, providing customer testimonials or talking about a key issue in your industry.

Whatever tactic you choose, keep in mind that when it comes to BtoB marketing, it’s all about relationships. How can mobile marketing improve your relationship with customers and prospects? How can you provide answers to their questions or solutions to their problems? Make yourself a mobile resource, and your relationship can continue wherever the customer is.

Image by Flickr user Siddartha Thota (Creative Commons)

Tags: Marketing, sales process, small business, Technology, Web Design
Posted in Business Development, Marketing, Sales Process, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology, Uncategorized, Web Design | 1 Comment »

Move Over, Social Media: Consumers Prefer to Get Marketing Messages by Email

May 4th, 2012 :: Rieva Lesonsky

By Rieva Lesonsky

When it comes to small business marketing, social media seems to get all the attention these days, but that old workhorse email marketing may actually be better at getting the job done. So says a new survey from ExactTarget reported in Small Business Trends.

The survey of consumers found that a whopping 77 percent prefer to get permission-based marketing messages via email. The next most preferred method, direct mail, didn’t even come close, with a mere 9 percent of the overall respondents ranking it their top method for receiving marketing messages. And text messaging and social media barely made the running, preferred by just 5 percent and 6 percent of users, respectively.

Now, you might think that this percentage is skewed toward older users—but you’d be wrong. Even among the 15-17 age group, 66 percent preferred email marketing messages, while just 10 percent preferred text messages and 8 percent Facebook.

While you may have heard that use of email is dropping, ExactTarget found that the decline in email use refers to personal communications. But consumers’ preference for getting permission-based marketing through email has actually increased 5 percent since 2008.

What’s happening? It seems that while fewer people are using email to communicate with friends and family (texting and social media are becoming more popular for this purpose), email is becoming the primary way that consumers like to manage their interactions with businesses. “Email is the top channel in terms of acceptability across all types of marketing message we asked about….from travel alerts and purchase receipts to promotional messages and polls,” ExactTarget reports. (The one exception was spam emails.)

No matter what age range you’re targeting—from 15 up to 65-plus—email is still the way to go. But generic email blasts are not, ExactTarget reports. For companies finding their email efforts are getting less response than they used to, consider:

Is it timely?
Is it targeted?
Is it relevant to the user?
Does it have a compelling subject line, headline and benefit?

Today’s subscribers are more sophisticated when it comes to email. Keep these four factors in mind, and your open rates will increase.

Image by Flickr user Sean MacEntee (Creative Commons)

Tags: Email marketing, Marketing, small business, social media
Posted in Email Marketing, Marketing, Small Business, small business, Social Media, social media | No Comments »

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Author Archive

How to Treat Your Interns Right

How Your Business Can Profit From Retail Showrooming

There’s Good News and Bad News About the Small Business Economy

Are You Ready for the New Mobile Shopper?

How to Keep Your Ecommerce Customers From Abandoning Their Shopping Carts

How and Why to Use Mobile Marketing to Reach Your BtoB Customers