7 Effective Ways to Boost Valuable Business Referrals
Client referrals are one of the most powerful ways to build and grow your business. Not only does it bring new clients to your company with a foundation of trust and confidence, but it also generates an encouraging feedback loop from your current clients who have been so impressed that they’ve decided to send their valuable connections to you too. Here are seven great ways to get your customers spreading the love!
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5 Smart Business Strategies to Take into 2022
You’ve made your resolution to take action, but now you need to measure your success. Goal setting is a great measuring stick for how much progress you’ve made, and doing it right can make or break your company’s forward momentum. Learn more about effective business goals and how to craft them for YOUR business’ marketing plan to optimize your 2022 resolution.
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BBB Business Tip: 10 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Small Business
Resolutions are firm decisions to take action – and they’re just as important for businesses as they are for individuals looking to make positive changes. As 2022 launches, the Better Business Bureau has offered some New Year’s Resolution ideas for your company to adopt, and we’re not surprised many of them are marketing-related! Check out these suggestions from the BBB, and let us know if you’d like some help. We’re especially excited about our accessibility solutions for #1, and for our NEW EasyReviews WordPress plugin for #7!
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Accessibility: An Experiential Design Perspective
Website accessibility is an important—and too often overlooked—facet of one’s online brand. Fortunately, the costs for making your web site accessible to all have come down dramatically over the years.
Recently, we successfully piloted our solution with a Sales Renewal client expert in accessibility, design and branding: Image 4, a Brand Marketing Agency with offices in NYC and Manchester NH. Read on to learn what got them excited about our accessibility package.
Website Accessibility & the Law: Why Your Website Must Be Compliant
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 wrote into law the right of all persons to have access to public facilities, spaces, and resources regardless of visible or invisible disability. While this legislation has been very helpful in increasing physical accessibility through initiatives like ramp-building, TTY programs, designated parking areas, and more – the ADA was drafted before the internet became a mainstay of daily life, and does not provide clear guidance on how to adapt accessibility to the digital and virtual realms. Because general accessibility liabilities apply equally to your business’ physical store or office location and to your company website, it’s important to understand how the ADA applies to your digital presence. Learn more about accessibility law and how to be in compliance in this article.
Read the full article at: www.searchenginejournal.com
What is Digital Accessibility?
You’re probably familiar with the concept of accessibility – adding wheelchair ramps, reserving disability-friendly parking, including Braille on signage, providing automatic doors, and many other initiatives and adaptations that allow equal access to stores, facilities, and resources. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has enforced the right of all people to have equal opportunity regardless of ability status. This legislation has made sweeping improvements in physical accessibility, but did you realize that the ADA applies to the digital world as well?
Website accessibility is often overlooked, in part because the ADA legislation was drafted in 1990 – before the internet boom created a new set of virtual and digital accessibility issues. From a legal perspective, the gray area in the ADA regarding internet accessibility isn’t an excuse to forego the same standards on a company website or application. And of course, you could be missing out on customers if your website isn’t adaptable to different needs and accommodations – that’s about 25% of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control!
Consider some of these situations:
- Can someone with a visual impairment still learn about your business from your website, or is all of your content directed at someone who can read your words and see your images? For instance, does your site design incorporate high contrast and legible font size?
- Can someone with limited physical mobility interact with your website? Is your site navigable without the ability to use a keyboard? Is it navigable without the use of a mouse?
- Can a screen reader access your site to properly translate it as needed? Are your pages dependent on a style sheet that might confuse a screen reader? Do you use an HTML table that cannot be parsed properly by a screen reader? Do your images have alt-text screen readers use to speak text aloud?
- Do your videos or other content negatively affect groups of users? Are there flashing elements on your site that might cause seizures? Are you using a color scheme that may be difficult to parse with color blindness?
If you’re not sure about any of these questions, you’re not alone – many businesses aren’t well acquainted with website accessibility yet. It also used to be much more expensive and difficult to implement accessibility features, often requiring highly specialized (and high-cost) consultancies to create a program, and though the ADA laws apply equally to all companies, many small businesses simply couldn’t afford the price tag.
Unfortunately, a lack of understanding or a smaller budget have not been shield enough against legal action, and the number of ADA claims are on the rise. The Wall Street Journal reported a 23% increase in web, app, and video accessibility lawsuits from 2019 to 2020, possibly linked to COVID shutdowns forcing greater scrutiny of virtual and digital accessibility for work-related purposes.
The first step towards making your digital content more accessible and meeting compliance guidelines is learning about web accessibility and how to apply it to your company’s sites, applications, and content. We recommend checking USAbility.gov’s Accessibility Basics for a quick snapshot of website accessibility. If you’re looking for a deeper dive, deque’s Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility offers a more robust set of discussions about different facets of accessibility.
Additionally, we at Sales Renewal offer accessibility packages to bring your business’ website into compliance, then continue to monitor and fix any issues that arise as your site evolves over time. If you’re interested in seeing how an accessibility solution can help ALL of your website visitors, not just the ones with disabilities, try clicking the universal accessibility icon at the bottom right part of your screen, available on any Sales Renewal webpage!
Let us know how we can bring accessibility to your business. Contact us today!
The $242 Billion Business Of Corporate Gifting Pivoted From A Routine To A Priority In The Pandemic
Somewhere between the gratitude of Thanksgiving and the gift-giving of December traditions lies the industry of corporate gifting. Companies can deepen connections, build loyalty, and increase a sense of mutual value with both clients and employees through thoughtful, intentional tokens of appreciation. Here’s an inside look at this rapidly growing business as we head into the business gift giving season.
Read the full article at: www.forbes.com
Seminar: Sales vs. Marketing, Making 1+1=3
Though sales and marketing have a long history of being at odds in many companies, they’re actually two very important sides of the same coin. Identifying the differences between sales and marketing, then finding ways to bridge the gap between them, can create a strong, consistent revenue stream that is greater than the sum of its parts – effectively making 1 + 1 = 3.
Sales Renewal CEO Keith Loris recently presented a seminar to a Vistage group outlining the differences between the two departments, including how those distinctions can be fused to augment each other. The long-term revenue generation focus of marketing keeps the short-term revenue generation pipeline of sales full, while successful sales’ rich data steers the marketing department’s targeting, tactics, and approaches. With clear communication and well-defined crossovers, sales and marketing departments join forces to become a powerful revenue generation machine.
Learn more from Mr Loris as he takes you through tactics, strategies, and case studies to renew YOUR company’s sales numbers through stronger sales-marketing collaboration.
Are You On Track to Hit Your Exit Revenue Goals?
How much should you sell your business for? Financial Advisors often advise you to sell it for X because X is what you’ll need to live the life you’d like in retirement … but they have no idea whether X is realistic or attainable – that’s up to you. And since businesses are bought and sold at a multiple of their revenue (1.2 times, 2.3 times, etc.), when an Advisors says sell for X, what they’re really telling you is the annual revenue you need to hit in your final years of business, right before the sale.
Running “sanity checks” on your exit revenue goals and projections and the marketing programs that are supposed to deliver that revenue will reveal whether you are being too optimistic or pessimistic about the value of your business, and can help you craft a more accurate strategy for achieving your Exit Revenue goal.
Keith Loris, President and CEO of Sales Renewal, discusses how to know if you’re likely to hit your exit revenue numbers and learn how agile, integrated marketing can help, in this informative webinar:
We also created a tool to help guide you through your exit planning process. Use our Exit Planning Analysis guide to keep on track or contact us for exit planning consultations!
The 12 Reasons Owner Transitions Are Not Successful (and What to Do About It)
While building your company is certainly of primary importance to any business owner, properly planning for and executing your exit plan is an often overlooked facet of business ownership that leaves many successful owners in the lurch when it’s time to move on. You’ve worked hard to grow revenue, increase brand awareness, and carve your foothold in the marketplace – don’t let these common setbacks prevent you from achieving the same level of success as you transition forward!
Read the full article at: csq.com