Samir Sampat

Referrals are the critical make-or-break point for businesses these days. You’ll be happy to know that getting them is a lot easier than you think. And, to ease your mind, we’ll answer the age-old concern of many small business owners: No, asking for referrals does not make you look “desperate.” Or at least it shouldn’t, if you’re doing it right.

In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, there’s one essential ingredient that will always define successful companies: trust. People aren’t interested in being sold products and services. They’re interested in making connections with companies they can trust to help them solve problems and alleviate pain points in their lives. In the digital age that is the 21st century, it’s even more important to build rapport and trust with prospects to encourage their continuation through the sales funnel.

Networking is and will always be essential to businesses, professionals, and the world in general. Networking can help individuals and businesses grow in several different ways. Of all the things that you can do to build your reputation and professional success, successful networking is probably one of the most essential elements. Like anything, of course, you’ve got to make sure that you’re doing it correctly.

Social media is an essential part of any successful digital marketing strategy. Small businesses often struggle the most with this, either due to a lack of knowledge or resources, but they’re the ones that really need to be taking advantage of all that social media marketing can do. Part of that comes from knowing where you stand so that you can make plans to improve your efforts. Enter the social media audit.

In business, efficiency is everything. The more efficient you are, the less time and money you spend on your day-to-day operations. That means more money goes to your bottom line and more time can be spent on the things that matter. Today’s digital tool market offers a vast selection of resources designed to help you become more efficient in your business, no matter what that means to you specifically.

Social selling is an essential part of every business, or it should be. Today’s audiences are buying more frequently and choosing companies more carefully based on their social presence, as well as things like social proof. No matter what industry you’re in or what your sales team is trying to sell, you have to have a social selling strategy in place. The good news is that there are plenty of tips and insight out there to help you create your own.

More than 25% of all U.S. adults are living with some form of disability. That might not seem like much, but when you consider that could be 25% of your website traffic or 25% of your profit margin, it gets a lot more important to address—and rightfully so. It’s the 21st century and we have access to so many great tools. Every website should have an inclusive, accessible design to deliver the best user experience for all users.

A customer service audit gives you a chance to review all aspects of the customer experience to see what is going well and what needs a little improvement. You may have your own specific objectives for this audit in addition to the general ones, so make sure that all objectives are communicated to everyone that’s involved with the audit process.

The first step to successful business advertising and marketing is to understand your options. That doesn’t mean just knowing the different channels and types of marketing to choose from, either—you should actually understand what each is, what it offers, and whether it’s right for your small business. Some of you have probably used and paid for Google Ads campaigns, but Local Service Ads (LSAs) are still widely under-utilized.

A social media calendar gives you a schedule that you can follow for all of your social media content sharing. This schedule can include posts, re-posts and shares, networking and community building, or anything else that you have planned for your social media channels. Too often, marketers create overly ambitious calendars and don’t have the time or resources to execute them effectively. This results in social media campaigns suffering because they aren’t getting the attention that they deserve.