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Women Business Owners Lose Out in Race for Government Contracts

February 13th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

In spite of years of governmental efforts to help women-owned small businesses obtain government contracts, new data from Bloomberg show that in 2012, the percentage of U.S. government contracts awarded to women-owned small businesses actually dropped for the second year in a row.

While awards of contracts to men-owned firms have declined as well, the awards to women decreased at a faster rate. The percentage of contracts awarded to women-owned small businesses decreased 5.5 percent to $16.4 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012. Meanwhile, the percentage of contracts awarded to men-owned small businesses declined by 4.1 percent, dropping to $80.9 billion.

Women-owned businesses have long faced challenges in obtaining government contracts. During the Clinton administration, in 1994, the federal government set a goal that at least 5 percent of the total value of eligible contracts must be awarded to women-owned businesses; however, that target has never been met. Last year, Bloomberg says, women-owned small businesses accounted for about 3.2 percent of government contracts overall.

The irony is that just two years ago, the U.S. government launched a new effort to expand women’s access to government contracts. In February 2011, the Small Business Administration published its final rule regarding the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program. This program authorizes federal contracting officers to set aside certain federal contracts for eligible women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) or economically disadvantaged women-owned small businesses (EDWOSBs).

What can you do if you’re a woman small business owner interested in landing federal government contracts? First, don’t give up hope. Here are some places to start learning about government contracting opportunities and making your firm more attractive to contracting officers:

  • You can self-certify as a WOSB or EDWOSB, or use a third-party certifier to help you through the process (since it can get pretty complex). Visit the SBA’s website to learn more about the WOSB and EDWOSB certification programs.
  • American Express and the nonprofit organization Women Impacting Public Policy have launched a program called “Give Me Five,” which offers education and resources to help more women business owners access federal contracting opportunities.
  • The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has programs and training to help small businesses, including women-owned businesses, successfully land government contracts. Learn more at the GSA website.

Image by Flickr user cometstar (Creative Commons)

 

 

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Are You Ready for Holiday Retail 2013?

February 12th, 2013 ::

By Karen Axelton

It may be hard to believe, but with the 2012 holiday shopping season just behind us, smart retailers are already prepping for the 2013 holiday retail rush. Shop.org and BIGInsights recently conducted a survey of retailers in which they asked them what they plan to do differently this coming holiday season. Here are the most common responses:

  • Better inventory management. Retailers plan to do better in terms of planning their inventory, managing it and being better-stocked with the most popular products on hand.
  • Improved online infrastructure. Online shopping was huge for holiday 2012, and that trend will only continue in 2013. No wonder that retailers are focusing on improved server capabilities, faster-loading pages and an overall better online experience for users. Shop.org notes that testing your site on multiple platforms and mobile devices is an important part of having a strong online infrastructure.
  • Better marketing. Areas where retailers plan to spend in 2013 include keyword purchasing, email marketing, organic and paid search marketing efforts. Better strategic planning–of marketing channels, marketing messages and marketing spending–was a key theme among respondents seeking to avoid last-minute scrambling and changes.
  • Cross-channel shopping and improved customer experience. Customers increasingly view shopping as a holistic experience where they move seamlessly from online engagement with your brand to buying online or in-store. Smart retailers are working to improve that experience at all touchpoints, and are harnessing data and analytics to understand how shoppers buy and interact with their companies both online and off. A full one-fourth of companies in the survey were planning a website redesign this year.
  • Mobile commerce. Retailers are still feeling their way in the world of m-commerce, but companies are investing in areas including responsive Web design, optimizing their sites for tablet use and enabling mobile checkout. Shop.org cites another survey which found that 43 percent of retailers named tablets and mobile as among their top three initiatives for this year.
  • Better customer service/fulfillment. More than 3 in 5 retailers say they will be investing in a wider range of shipping options for the coming year. Among the alternatives companies are considering: ship-to-store for in-store pickup, same-day delivery and free returns. Companies also say they want to provide better last-minute shopping options, better guarantees of Christmas delivery, and faster delivery in general.

Image by Flickr user Mike Kline (Creative Commons)

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Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Highrise (Customer Relationship Manager)

February 8th, 2013 ::

Highrise

Keeping your customers’ relevant information updated and handy shouldn’t be a cumbersome endeavor. In fact, many CRM solutions exist to make this task a no-brainer. Highrise is one such solution. You can save and organize notes and email conversations for up to 30,000 customers and contacts. The program also allows you to keep track of proposals and deals, share customer status with your sales team, and schedule texts and emails to remind sales members to follow up. There are different price plans for different-sized teams, starting at $24 per month for up to six users.

 

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Posted in Business Development, Resources, Sales Process, sales process, Sales Teams, Small Business, small business, Technology | 2 Comments »

B2B Marketing Budgets Are on the Rise in 2013—Is Yours?

February 6th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

If your small business markets products or services to other businesses, you may want to consider boosting your marketing budget for 2013 if you haven’t already. A new survey from BtoB Online found that nearly half of B2B companies are increasing their marketing spending for this year.

BtoB’s 2013 Outlook: Marketing Priorities and Plans report polled over 300 B2B marketers and found:

What are marketers spending?

Some 48.7 percent of marketers say they will increase their budgets this year, up from 40.1 percent last year. About 41 percent will keep their budgets the same, down from 48.4 percent last year. Meanwhile, 9.5 percent will cut their budgets, down from 10.8 percent in 2012.

Where are they spending it?

Some 67.2 percent of marketers say they will increase their spending on digital marketing this year. Of those, 70.1 percent will spend more on website development, 61.9 percent on email marketing, 56 percent on social media, 55.8 percent on online video and 52.5 percent on search.

In addition, 72.2 percent of B2B marketers say content marketing is part of their marketing plan. The most popular platforms for content marketing are websites (93 percent), social media (65.4 percent), print (47.5 percent) and mobile (20.9 percent).

What do marketers hope to achieve?

B2B marketers report their number-one marketing goal this year is demand generation/customer acquisition, cited by 69.3 percent. The second most important goal, increasing brand awareness, was way behind, cited by 17.6 percent. In third place: customer retention, cited by 13.1 percent.

Who’s going mobile?

More B2B marketers are integrating mobile marketing, but there’s still a way to go. Some 32.7 percent of respondents say they currently use mobile in their marketing strategy, while 35.5 percent say they plan to spend more on mobile marketing this year.

What are they automating?

Better aligning marketing and sales is a key goal for B2B marketers this year. Some 52.3 percent say they will spend money on sales enablement platforms, while 50.8 percent plan to invest in marketing automation systems.

What old-fashioned marketing method still matters?

It’s not all digital and mobile. For many B2B companies, events are still crucial to their marketing strategy. In fact, some 41.5 percent of survey respondents say they will increase their event budgets for 2013.

Editor’s Note: Network Solutions offers an easy way to build a website for mobile devices in mere minutes: goMobi™, powered by dotMobi.

Image by Flickr user Andy Roberts Images (Creative Commons)

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Web.com Small Business Toolkit: Arqball Spin (360-Degree Photography)

February 4th, 2013 ::

Arqball Spin

To improve your click-through rates, you need to improve the look and intrigue level of your website. Stunning, eye-pleasing photography is a must, and if the consumer wants to see products from all angles you can either take many shots or show the object in 360-degree photography. Arqball Spin is a 360-degree photography solution that works right from your phone or tablet. You place your object on a spinning table and then use the free Arqball Spin app to capture, edit and share an interactive 360-degree image. Bonus: 360-degree photos reduce returns by helping customers see the product from all angles before making a purchase.

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Your 3-Step Plan for a Business Website That Drives Sales

January 29th, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

Is your small business website driving the leads, customer engagement and sales you want? If it’s falling short of your goals, how can you help your business website perform better? Here are three steps to take.

  1. Focus on your target customers. If your website isn’t attracting enough customers, maybe it’s too vague and general. No business, or website, can succeed by trying to be all things to all people. Instead of casting a wide net, narrow your focus. Try developing a couple of “personas” that represent your target customer. Be as specific as you can. If your target customer is a busy mom, is she a working mom or a stay-at-home mom? How old are her children? What products is she looking for? Get as specific as you can; this will help you focus on the keywords that will drive that exact customer to your site. By pinpointing the specific groups you’re hoping to reach, you can develop a website that reaches out to those people.
  2. Focus on your customers’ pain points. A website is first and foremost a marketing tool, but sometimes small business owners forget this. Just like your other marketing materials, your small business website should show prospects that your business understands their pain points and is trying to solve them. Going back to the busy mom customer we mentioned above, if she is a working mom with an infant at home, one pain point might be the need to keep stocked up on diapers in order to avoid midnight runs to the convenience store. Your website and keywords should focus on solutions such as diaper delivery, diapers shipped to your home, auto-reorder of diapers and similar options.
  3. Focus on a call to action. Sometimes your business website is working well at attracting customers, but when they’re on your site, they just click around for a bit and leave. If customers aren’t taking action on your site, it’s probably because you’re not showing them a clear call to action. Every page on your site should drive customers to take a specific step, whether that’s “Buy now,” “Shop,” “Call us,” “Click to get a quote,” or “Chat with our operators.” If your product or service is one that doesn’t require a lot of thought, your call to action could be simple, such as “Buy now.” If it’s a product such as business equipment that requires a lot of hand-holding before a decision is made, there will be more steps involved, but you still need a call to action for each of those steps: “Click for more information,” “Request a quote,” etc. This is not the time to be subtle. Use action-oriented words that are very specific as to what you want customers to do. Emphasize them with color, hyperlinks and graphics.

Last, but not least, be sure that you test all the changes you make to your site by monitoring your analytics to see what users are doing. By making these changes, you’ll find your small business website driving a lot more business.

Image by Flickr user FutUndBeidl (Creative Commons)

 

 

 

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Affluent Men Are From Mars, Affluent Women Are From Venus

January 23rd, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

Both affluent men and affluent women have optimistic outlooks about their personal financial situations in 2013, a new report from Shullman Research found. However, there are significant differences in the optimism levels of men and women that could affect how you market to these wealthy consumers.

The Shullman Luxury and Affluence Monthly Pulse conducted in December found that 48 percent of U.S. adults with a household income of over $250,000 believe the U.S. economy is doing better today than it was a year ago. About one-third (34 percent) thought the economy was doing the same as 12 months ago.

However, when you dig down into the men’s vs. the women’s responses, some key differences emerge:

  • Some 45 percent of men are very optimistic or optimistic about the economy, compared to just 35 percent of women.
  • About 42 percent of female respondents say that the economy is essentially the same today as it was 12 months ago, compared to just 26 percent of male respondents.
  • While men and women generally felt positive about their current financial situations, with 78 percent of men and 73 percent of women describing themselves as financially stable, men were more positive about the future. Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of men believe they will definitely or most likely be better off financially one year from now than they are today, compared to 64 percent of women.
  • Overall, 90 percent of those surveyed reporting that as long as the economy keeps improving, they will spend either more than they did in 2012, or the same amount. However, men were more likely to spend more; 43 percent of men said they will spend a lot more or slightly more than they did last year. Just 36 percent of women said the same.

Shullman Research Center founder Bob Shullman says women tend to take a more cautious approach to their finances than do men. What do these numbers mean to your business?

If you’re targeting upscale women, your marketing message will need to work harder to reach them and overcome that inclination to be conservative in their spending. Use marketing messaging that will calm their financial concerns, such as emphasizing the value of your product or service, how it will benefit them or their families, and how it’s a smart investment.

If you’re targeting upscale men, marketing messages that focus more on “fun” and rewarding oneself may be more effective. Affluent men are more willing to boost their spending and feeling more confident, so tap into their pent-up desires to spend a little more by playing up the desirable features of your product or service.

Image by Flickr user ToGa Wanderings (Creative Commons)

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What Marketing Strategies Are You Spending on in 2013?

January 22nd, 2013 ::

By Maria Valdez Haubrich

How does your small business’s marketing budget for 2013 compare to that of your competitors? A new survey by StrongMail has some insights. Overall, businesses are bullish on marketing for 2013, with a total of 89 percent saying they will either increase or maintain their level of marketing spending in the coming year. (Some 45 percent will increase their marketing budgets and 44 percent will keep them the same.)

Email marketing, social media and mobile marketing will be the main focus of investment this year. More than half (55.5 percent) of marketing executives report plans to spend more on email marketing campaigns in 2013; 51.8 percent say they will spend more on social media; 42.8 percent say they will increase spending on mobile marketing; and 39.8 percent will boost spending on search marketing.

Two-thirds of the companies in the survey report they will spend more on mobile marketing programs such as mobile apps (39 percent) and SMS alerts (21 percent). Overall, mobile marketing spending will increase by 11 percent compared to 2012.

When it comes to social media, where are marketers putting most of their efforts? Facebook dominates, with 60 percent of businesses saying Facebook is the most valuable social media channel for them. Twitter and YouTube ranked second and third, respectively. Google and Pinterest were somewhere in the middle, cited by 31 percent of marketers, while Yelp, Instagram and LinkedIn brought up the rear.

Email is a strong area of growth for marketers, who plan to use it for a variety of purposes this year. While at one point some experts were predicting that social media would make email obsolete, marketers are figuring out email’s value in growing their social media presence and customer engagement. That’s reflected in the 46 percent who say they will spend more on emails to drive growth to their social media channels, such as Facebook or Twitter. In addition, 38.8 percent will spend more on promotional emails, and 34.7 percent will spend more on email newsletters.

Where aren’t marketers spending? Direct mail, trade show participation and traditional advertising will take the biggest hits. Some 37.4 percent report they plan to cut spending on direct mail, 33.6 percent will cut back on trade show spending and 23 percent will decrease spending on advertising in 2013.

You can view a PDF of the full survey results here.

Image by Flickr user Jay Freshuk (Creative Commons)

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100 Trends to Watch for 2013

January 17th, 2013 ::

By Karen Axelton

As you prepare your small business for greater success in the coming year, be sure to take a look through trendspotting company JWT’s list of 100 Things to Watch for 2013. While you’ll want to peruse the whole list at leisure, here are a few that stood out to us as of interest to business owners:

  1. Allergen-free foods: JWT cites a 2011 study showing that as many as 1 in 12 American children may have a food allergy. That’s twice as high as previously believed. In 2013, JWT predicts that “allergen-free” will become as ubiquitous as gluten-free, with more food manufacturers, restaurants and retailers devoting themselves to allergy-free meals and snacks.
  2. Ambushed by Amazon: Is Amazon today’s Wal-Mart or Barnes & Noble? Like those mass merchants before it, the ecommerce giant is threatening to run all types of independent retailers out of town. With same-day delivery currently being tested in some cities, its Amazon Flow app that shows shoppers in your store how much the same product costs on Amazon, and everything from luxury jewelry to food for sale, Amazon is a major “disruptor” that retailers and etailers will have to take into account. Latest news? It’s reportedly considering opening brick-and-mortar stores
  3. Appcessories: Accessories are taking on high-tech functionality, turning into “appcessories.” Whether it’s smart eyeglasses, wristwatches or wristbands that integrate with tech toys, or even gloves and socks with RFID tags or embedded microphones, companies are creating dozens of ways for consumers to integrate technology into their clothing and accessories.
  4. Coaching brands: Companies now have the ability to gather unheard-of reams of data about their customers. In 2013, they’ll increasingly use that data to “coach” their customers on how to do things better, provide personalized recommendations for products and services, and otherwise provide customized assistance to help clients improve their lives.
  5. Hyper-personalized customer service: In a closely related trend, businesses in some industries are using information about customers to provide extremely personalized service. For example, restaurants can log details about customer preferences and then provide “the usual” cocktail or a gluten-free menu without the person even having to ask. As technology enables bigger companies to provide the kind of personal touch that used to belong to small companies, your firm will have to find new ways to keep pace.
  6. Dads in the aisles: With women working outside the home and the number of stay-at-home dads multiplying, more marketers that used to focus
on moms will need to include dad as well. Whether you sell cleaning supplies, household products and décor, children’s clothing or food, you will need to market to men and take into account how they like to shop, buy and spend.

Read the full report for 94 more thought-provoking trends.

Image by Flickr user Steve Bowbrick (Creative Commons)

 

 

 

 

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Are You Leaving Money in Customers’ Online Shopping Carts?

January 16th, 2013 ::

By Rieva Lesonsky

The holiday shopping season resulted in as much as $43.4 billion in sales for online retailers. But a study performed by The Adcom Group for Virtual Hold Technology (VHT) suggests that number could have been much higher if consumers hadn’t struggled with a variety of obstacles to completing the online sale.

The study found that more than three-fourths of online shoppers ran into shopping roadblocks when they had a problem completing the purchase, but couldn’t find help online. A similar number reported that this frustration led them to give up entirely and abandon their online shopping cart.

What specific issues were causing problems?

  • Problems correctly reading and using the captcha – 80.3 percent
  • Trouble using promo codes, gift card redemption, or with other discount – 46 percent
  • Product was back-ordered – 32.5 percent
  • Had questions about product features and had difficulty finding answers  - 31 percent
  • The site timed out (or appeared to) – 30.5 percent
  • Had problems logging onto the site, setting up your account or remembering your password – 29.3 percent
  • Had questions about shipping and had difficulty finding answers – 24.7 percent
  • Had problems entering  credit card data or with credit card acceptance -22.6 percent
  • Had questions about product availability and had difficulty finding answers – 20.1 percent
  • Had problems re-setting your password – 18.9 percent
  • Had questions about the return policy and had difficulty finding answers – 15.9 percent

Here’s the really scary part: When faced with these problems, more than 37 percent of customers just give up, and 25.5 percent head to a competitor.

How could online retailers help combat the problem of abandoned shopping carts? Rapidly resolving the problems that get in the way of buying was the number-one answer. Customers overwhelmingly said they would buy more from a site that offered the ability to click or tap to get immediate customer service assistance. In fact, more than three-fourths said they would prefer a site that offered this convenience to a competing site that didn’t.

Providing better customer service would not only drive customers to complete purchases, but also inspire new business. Over half of survey respondents said they would become promoters of brands that offered the ability to click or tap for customer service, and that they would refer others to the brand, website or mobile app.

Of course, many of the issues mentioned above could be solved with a robust set of FAQs that’s easy to find on your site. Make sure FAQs about issues such as shipping, return policies and more are clearly visible on every page of your site navigation.

You can download the full results of the study at www.virtualhold.com/onlineshopping.

Image by Flickr user zion fiction (Creative Commons)

 

 

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