Wednesday 28 May 2014

How Networking Can Improve Your Business


Many small business owners primarily network in order to get quality leads for their business. As a small business owner, networking can also help you to employ new staff, sell your products and/or services, enhance your business practices and help you achieve any number of your professional goals.
Many business owners use traditional form, although they have several options to network (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, website etc). You can decide to join groups, network in online-based forums or attend networking events.

The important thing that you need to know about 21st century networking is that it is as great as you choose to make it. Networking can be a sheer waste of time if you do it incorrectly. To be worth your time and effort, networking should produce a positive outcome – networking must help you to reach your business goals.

Good business networking can help you accomplish the following:
  • Get the name of your brand out there through word of mouth
  • Sell your products and/or services
  • Get quality leads, especially if you are launching a new product
  • Meet good suppliers of raw materials
  • Generate customer interest in your brand – this is particularly great for business owners who sell novelty products.
  • Partner with other businesses for mutual benefit(s)


When networking in the flesh, it is important that you use appealing business cards, brochures, fliers, catalogues, posters and other traditional marketing materials. If you also plan to do online marketing, having a great looking website and social networking presence will be a major plus.  

If you need any help with your marketing then please feel free to visit a4 Marketing Solutions or let me know if you would like any advise.

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Social Media Marketing for your Business

It is no secret that marketing on social media platforms is one of the fastest ways to reach one’s target audience/market. Smart business owners post quality content to build their reader base and also increase their website traffic.

When it comes to social media marketing, it is important that you arm yourself with the techniques that will help you see impressive results. Otherwise, you could just end up wasting your time.

Here are some valuable social media marketing tips and tricks:

Share your content. If you don’t share your links a few times, you may end up not reaching your target audience with the updates you post.

Avoid being a spammer by all means! You do not want to be tagged as a “spammer” on social media platforms; this is a reputation that you do not want. Uninstall any plug-in that is responsible for sharing your old posts once every hour – viewing the  same post every hour is enough to irritate anybody.

Optimize your posts for all social media networks. When you optimize your content using keywords, tags etc. you will make it a whole lot easier for your target audiences to find you online.

Have an attractive and user-friendly website. When people find you on a social media site, they would want to click-through to your website – do not disappoint them with an unprofessional-looking site. It is easy to distrust a business with an excuse for a website. Would you buy a bacon sandwich from a vendor who picks his nose and has a dirty, poorly constructed Van?

Great presentation (of your business) is everything!

a4 Marketing can offer you website design and social media management, we are also on hand to answer any questions you might have and give you useful advice.