In yesterday’s blog, we took a look at an article on SocialFresh.com by HubSpot SEO, Brian Whalley that included a list of ways that Twitter can be used in the business world. With social networking websites being so popular these days, it only makes sense to utilize these free options to spread the word about your company.

As we mentioned yesterday, your profiles will also help you to attain further information that may help you become a leader in your industry. As much as Twitter allows you to answer questions, it enables you to ask them as well. Building a network has never been so easy! Here’s a few other ways that Twitter can assist in boosting your business.

Building an Email Marketing List – “Email marketing is still a major channel,” says Whalley. So be sure to tweet about ways in which your followers may be added to your emailing list. This way, it will increase your chances of converting your Twitter followers into clients.

Search Engine Optimization – We have often mentioned that blogging helps to increase your website’s search engine hits. Well, social media helps for you to become that much more noticeable as well. Often, when searching for a company on Google, the business website will appear in addition to the company’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Again, social media pages help you get noticed!

Understanding Trends – “Trending” is a big deal on Twitter. Anytime someone includes a hashtag (also known as the “pound key” or “number sign” on telephones – #), it represents a topic that is expected to be popular. Knowing what the hot topics are in your area will help you get in on the action by providing interesting insight to relevant topics in your community.

Remember that tweeting is about communicating. You don’t always have to send messages that are specific to your company. Just getting involved in conversations will be a great way to elevate your social media status. Hopefully, your company will get to the point where it becomes a trending topic itself!

Customer Retention – Retaining your current customers is one of the most important things you can do to keep your business strong. Whalley suggests that you use “Twitter Search” in order to monitor certain terms that are related to your industry. This will assist you in detecting unhappy customers, allowing you to resolve their issues.

Growing Other Social Media Communities – Naturally, it makes sense to cross promote your Facebook and Twitter accounts along with any other social media you may be signed up with. This provides opportunities for your fans and followers to engage with your business using their preferred network. Happy tweeting!

All week long, the Synergy Marketing Consultants Blog has been championing the use of social networking websites as the perfect means to grow businesses. We’re not exactly experts at it ourselves, but we’re certainly doing our part to ensure that we reach as many people as possible through social media to help inform them about the wonders of promotional gifts.

Both our Facebook and Twitter profiles are updated daily with links to each and every blog posting. And we have much more planned in the future for each page in an effort to build a stronger and wider client base. Being that we’re not experts though, we decided to take to the internet to learn more about how Twitter can be utilized as a business-growing tool

On SocialFresh.com, HubSpot manager Brian Whalley lists a bunch of ways that Twitter can be used to grow businesses. So let’s take it from the expert, shall we? As he reminds us, the free microblogging website has more than 200 million users worldwide, accumulating 1.6 billion searches every day. Undoubtedly, it’s a social media juggernaut.

Customer Service – Whalley writes that Twitter is the perfect “quick answer” alternative to call centres and online chats. For any customers that may have quick questions, they should be encouraged to tweet your company so that you may answer them in a speedy and convenient way. This is especially helpful to all of your followers as they will be able to see your answer, perhaps giving them some beneficial information that will add favour to your brand.

Lead Generation – Social media is a great way to generate leads. As we like to do, you should use your Twitter account to post updates about your blogs, new sales and in-store specials or even contest giveaways that may encourage followers to visit your place of business. Be sure to include other contact information in your tweets like your email address and phone number.

Market Research – Just as Twitter may allow you to answer customer questions. It can also allow you to ask them as well. Many tweets are often written in the form of questions to gauge the feelings of the many people out there who are only too happy to share their opinions freely. Tweeting is a great way to gain insight.

Sales Enablement – Writes Whalley, “The more information a sales person can gather about a lead the more qualified of a conversation they can have. By including Twitter profile data in your marketing database and your customer relationship management software, you can provide your sales team with recent tweets from their leads. This helps them to build trust faster and close the deal.”

Check out tomorrow’s blog to learn of a few more ways that Twitter can be used to grow your business. And if you haven’t yet, be sure to follow Synergy Marketing Consultants on our Twitter page (@synergymkt). We’re doing our part to use social media to our advantage as well!

Over the past couple of blogs, we have been championing the use of Facebook as a way to get businesses to higher levels of popularity. Needless to say, social networking websites are all the rage these days, as they seem to be the go-to destinations for most people who are looking to communicate with others across the globe.

Used for both personal and business reasons, Facebook has helped individuals become quite popular. Twitter isn’t much different. In fact, the more followers one has on Twitter, the more that person is considered a success story. Just a couple of days ago, business reporter Morgan Campbell of The Toronto Star wrote an article detailing how Twitter has helped Toronto Blue Jay star, Jose Bautista take his career to the next level.

Baseball fans are well aware that Bautista took his career to new heights just a couple of seasons ago when he set the Major League Baseball record for most home runs in the 2010 season – he hit 54! His 43 homers hit in the 2011 season was enough to make him the league leader two years in a row.

However, as Campbell pointed out in his article, Bautista has just made his way on to Bloomberg and Business Week’s “Power 100 Athletes” list. And apparently, it isn’t just his home run count that has placed him 74th overall on the prestigious list. David Newman is the VP of analytics at the marketing research firm, CSE who helped research the rankings. He insists that Bautista’s dedication to social media helps to set him apart from other pro athletes.

“I follow Joey Bats on Twitter,” mentioned one of our esteemed Synergy sales reps today – also a big Blue Jays fan. Referring to Bautista’s twitter moniker (@JoeyBats19), our rep is a perfect example of how fans are able to enjoy learning more about their favourite athletes. They hear from them directly on Twitter.

Campbell points out that Bautista is nearing 150,000 followers on Twitter and is in and around the 55,000 “like” mark on Facebook. Said Newman: “Social media is such an essential extension of the brand and that connection with the sponsor. That’s why it was so critical to see what kind of (crowd) is following a particular athlete.”

It goes without saying that Bautista is one of Canada’s most well-known baseball players mainly for being a star on the Toronto Blue Jays. His superstar status was perhaps, cemented this past Monday when it was announced that he would be gracing the cover of the Canadian edition of the new Sony baseball video game, “MLB ’12: The Show.”

Fans caught wind of this a couple of weeks ago when Bautista tweeted that a surprise announcement was coming following a photo shoot for the video game. Clearly, tweeting is helping Bautista’s reign as baseball hero, especially in Toronto. Fans may also follow Toronto Blue Jays Ricky Romero (@RickyRo24) and catcher J.P. Arencibia (@jparencibia9) on Twitter. Congrats Joey Bats!

In yesterday’s blog, we happily announced the official launch of the brand new Synergy Marketing Consultants Inc. Facebook page! Well, it may not have been the launch of a new page – but we did create a new URL that makes it a whole lot easier to find us on everyone’s favourite social networking site: facebook.com/synergymkt.

Ensuring that our Facebook page is regularly updated will be a big part of our 2012 initiative to keep our clients and online followers constantly up-to-date and informed about all that is going with Synergy. However, we always encourage you to feel free to contact one of our awesome reps at 1-877-748-9884 to get the latest scoops on our amazing promotional products and the specials that often become available.

On Techipedia.com, Tamar Weinberg reinforces our belief that staying up on your social networking is an important part of running a successful business in this day and age. She points out that having a memorable title, or easy-to-remember URL, will make it easy for people to find you on Facebook is pretty important. Point taken!

This is something that any fan page can accomplish once it has reached a minimum of 25 fans. Remember to customize your page as well. Of course, you may upload a profile picture. We suggest that you use your company logo to make your online fans familiar with the image that represents your brand.

As well, Facebook allows you space to fill out a description section so that you can inform visitors to the page about all of the relevant details about your company. As Weinberg suggests, “Don’t shy away from giving your community the information needed to find you elsewhere both online and offline.”

On our page, we decided to keep it fairly simple and to-the-point. Our company overview states that “with over 25 years of industry experience in promotional marketing and sourcing great promotional products and business gifts, we have developed relationships with suppliers across the globe. We supply promotional merchandise to some of the largest corporations in North America.”

We also filled out a mission statement: “We have learned it is always easier to keep a customer then to find a new one. With this philosophy in mind we have set out to help our customers and welcome inquiries for sourcing unique and custom promotional products that will set you apart from your competition.”

Of course, we hope you enjoy each and every visit to our Facebook fan page and also hope you have just as much fun creating and customizing your own. Utilizing social networking websites to grow your business is no longer an option in these modern times. It’s a necessity. Good thing it’s free to do!

We’ve just made it easier for you to find us on Facebook! Now, we have to admit that we have been so busy around the Synergy Marketing Consultants Inc. offices in recent months, that it’s made it difficult for us to practice what we preach when it comes to our social networking. We’ve often blogged about how important the use of such sites as Facebook can be for your business.

Firstly, we have recently updated our Facebook profile to include a link to each and every one of our blogs. Because all blogs will be posted to our Facebook page, it will now allow you to post your comments and opinions about what we write. Secondly, like we mentioned, you can now easily find us on everyone’s favourite social networking site by logging on to facebook.com/synergymkt.

This short form moniker for our company is also used as our official Twitter name. So whether you are “liking” or “tweeting” don’t forget to look us up under “synergymkt” and you’ll find us right away! These sites are two of the best ways to keep in touch and stay updated about our latest products and newest happenings with Synergy!

On Techipedia.com, marketing specialist and self-professed “tech geek”, Tamar Weinberg discusses how important the use of Facebook and Twitter is for business owners. In fact, she points out a growing trend in television advertising that highlights this belief. Many companies, she notes, display their Facebook URLs over their company websites in television commercials!

Clearly, there is a shift in the way that businesses are promoting themselves online. And as many consumers now see it, if you are not on Facebook or Twitter, it’s almost as if your don’t exist! Weinberg goes on to outline how creating a Facebook profile for your business can help it reach new levels of success.

One of the first things that should be known about the widely-popular site, says Weinberg, is the difference between a profile page and a fan page. Profile pages are for personal use and should be indicated by your first and last name. A fan page, however, can be created in conjunction with your profile page to represent your business.

Our fan page, for example, is clearly named “Synergy Marketing Consultants Inc.” and has our company logo as its profile picture. Once established, there are some “do’s and don’ts” recommended by Weinberg that may contradict some previous tips you may have read about using Facebook.

“Don’t use a Facebook Group,” she writes, “They are outdated (from Facebook’s early days) and do not support Facebook Markup Language (FBML) or Facebook Apps, so they are not as interactive and thus do not make as strong of an impact.” We’ll take a further look at Weinberg’s advice in tomorrow’s blog.

In yesterday’s blog, we took a look at Ryan Starr article published by The Toronto Star that listed a number of rules to keep small businesses afloat. This list is especially important for entrepreneurs who find that they are constantly working within the constraints of a tight budget.

By following these rules, we believe that business owners may not only run their businesses in cost-effective ways, but that they will also be able to more easily turn profits. After all, making a profit is the name of the game right? We ended up at rule number four yesterday, so let’s pick up where we left off, shall we?

5. Get help. Sometimes, all you need is a helping hand to take your business to the next level. Don’t be too proud to ask for assistance. For example, some very business-savvy entrepreneurs are quite simply horrible at accounting. Hiring a bookkeeper in such a case will pay off for you in the long run.

6. Borrow early! Don’t go to a bank looking to secure a loan if you are in desperate need of money. The bottom line is that they will see you as too high a risk to allow you to borrow. The best time to secure additional working capital is when your business is doing well. Consider alternative methods of funding such as merchant cash advances as well.

7. Inspect inventory. Being efficient is the key here. You don’t want to tie up all of your money in too much inventory, but you certainly don’t want to be without an adequate amount either. Writes Starr, “These days, just-in-time shipping can help ensure you don’t have excess stock just sitting there.”

8. Reduce overhead. Go through your expenses and see what you can do to cut costs. Is everything on your list necessary? Contact your service providers to see if you can score better deals for your phone and internet services. See if you can negotiate a better deal on rent. Perhaps, putting the money you save into improving the look of your business will help generate greater profits.

Mark Cahsens is the owner of a toy and sporting goods manufacturer in Oakville, Ontario. Following the above mentioned rules has helped Cahsens to hold on to sufficient funding to help run his business. He hasn’t had to go to the bank for money, and he finds that both his supplier and customer relationships have improved as well.

Said Cahsens: “I encourage my suppliers to extend terms (up to 120 days in some cases), so, effectively, I’m receiving money from my customers before I have to pay my suppliers.” It is our hope that you too may be able to follow these business rules and enjoy the success that your business deserves. Good luck!

Over the past couple of days, we have been blogging about ways to keep your customers satisfied. Naturally, doing so is a super important part of running a successful business. We should know, here at Synergy, as we work at keeping the customers of our customers satisfied! But obviously, there is more to it than just making customers happy.

After all, making decisions for your company that may hurt your bottom line is certainly not beneficial. At the end of the day, it’s all about making a profit. And this can be tough to do if your company is having a cash flow problem. This is one of the reasons that Synergy is so excited about its amazing promotional gifts. They serve as very cost-effective ways to promote businesses.

A few months back, Ryan Starr tackled the issue of small businesses operating on small budgets in a special to The Toronto Star. Obviously, poor money management is bad for business. So with the help of a few business experts, Starr devised a list of rules for entrepreneurs to follow in order to keep their business affairs running smoothly.

We’d like to take a look at this list and add our own two cents worth in our continued effort to help strengthen small businesses all across Canada. These rules, we feel, make sense for businesses of all sizes, but they should certainly come in handy for business owners who may need to carefully work within a tight budget.

1. Plan ahead. Essentially, this is something that should become a regular part of every business owner’s new year. At the beginning of the year, writes Starr, you should forecast what you believe the following twelve months should look like. At the end of each month, you should take a look at your progress and keep your goals updated.

2. Make better deals. This is especially important when dealing with your suppliers. If you’re working within a modest budget, you’ll want to negotiate favourable payment terms with your suppliers that may be based on the times that you get paid by your clients. That way, you’re never strapped for cash.

3. Mind your money. It’s in your best interest to send invoices promptly. Of course, the quicker you send them out, the quicker you will be paid. As well, don’t forget to monitor your receivable accounts every day to ensure that your customers are paying you on time. This is especially important if the payments you make to your suppliers are determined by the income you receive.

4. Ditch deadbeats. Sometimes, in order to run a successful business, you need to cut ties with those who are not helping you to make a profit. If you have clients who continually pay late, it’s time to let them go. This is a problem that you don’t want, right? So why have it? We’ll take a look at the second half of these list of rules in tomorrow’s blog.

In yesterday’s blog, we took a look at an Om2Marketing.com article that described the act of pleasing customers as an art. Naturally, this art requires a number of factors but also provides a number of benefits when pulled off correctly. The article also noted that there are three levels of customer satisfaction. We’d like to visit that concept in today’s blog.

The first level of satisfaction deals solely with the product that a customer is looking to buy. If he or she is satisfied with a purchase, that experience only conquers one level of the customer-pleasing art. This is because the purchase provides little opportunity for the business to provided added value.

The second level of satisfaction is when an opportunity arises for a business to add advice, information or services that serve as add-ons to the product being purchased. This helps for the customer experience to be a deeper one. Instead of simply being satisfied with the brand being bought, the customer can now attach an emotional value to the visit of the store.

The third level of satisfaction deals with the customer’s feelings towards the service he or she receives. This is when a person is able to attribute his or her affiliation with a store to the experience had during a visit. When customers enjoy doing business with you specifically, you have helped them to reach a true sense of customer pleasure.

On Om2Marketing.com, it is explained that to reach the third level of customer satisfaction, one must consider a number of factors, yet again. The first is tangibles which include the appearance of your store, equipment and personnel. The second is reliability which refers to how dependable and accurate your staff members are shown to be.

Responsiveness is another key factor. Are you and your staff willing to help customers promptly? Assurance is also important. This demonstrates how knowledgeable your staff is. Empathy is an important factor as well. When your staff shows a caring attitude towards your customers, it connotes that you are willing to give individual attention to each person who enters your store.

Mastering the art of customer-pleasing means implementing each of these factors in your approach to those who visit your place of business. As the site writes, “Your true aim should be not just to create positive satisfaction but rather a very high level of satisfaction (‘delight’) because this level has a disproportionately favourable effect on what customers think of you and leads them to keep buying from you.”

At Synergy Marketing Consultants, we are in the business of pleasing customers. In addition, we are also in the business of helping businesses please their customers. So, for us, we are kind of working double duty. In other words, in order for our company to be successful, we need to make sure that customers of our customers are happy!

We talk a lot about pleasing customers around here. Since it’s such an important aspect of our business, you can forgive us for constantly thinking up ways to please our clients. It certainly isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do. There is an art – if you will – to bringing satisfaction to your customer base on a regular basis.

On Om2Marketing.com, you’ll find a pretty interesting article entitled “The Art of Pleasing Your Customers”. It insists that to get the art down pat, business owners must be committed to considering a list of factors that go into customer-pleasing. Clearly, this is an art made up of many layers that, when working together, can produce great results.

According to the site, these factors include “targeting customers carefully, knowing what your customers need, ensuring a competitive offer, promoting your business distinctively, delivering excellent service, and keeping track of customers’ satisfaction and opinions.” But, first let’s pinpoint exactly what it means to “please” a customer.

When a customer is satisfied, it means that he or she is able to leave your place of business with a perceived experience of the product or service that is actually better than what was originally expected. If this is achieved, chances are that the customer will continue to return to the business to spend more money.

There’s nothing like repeat business to show that you have been successful in pleasing someone who has visited your store. As the site points out, repeat business also saves you money as regular customers are cheaper to advertise to and serve than those who have not yet visited your store.

Furthermore, they provide you with the perfect recipients of promotional gifts. Satisfied customers are obviously the most likely to pass on the good word about your business to their families and friends. Your promo gifts will serve as excellent reminders for them to do so.

But, there are, however, various levels of customer satisfaction. What level are you trying to achieve? In tomorrow’s blog, we will revisit the Om2Marketing.com article to go over the three levels of customer satisfaction to see if we can help you reach the level that you are looking for!

Good morning everyone. On behalf of Synergy Marketing Consultants, we’d like to wish you all a very merry Monday! What’s that you say? You hate Mondays? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. For many people, Monday is the perennial worst day of the week. After a relaxing weekend, most find getting up for work a tedious chore.

But never fear, your incredible Promo Blog is here! We thought it might be good idea to fill you in on a few ways that you can make today – and every Monday – a day that you actually look forward to. No, we can’t change your work schedule for you. But we certainly try to change your attitude towards the most hated of all the days of the week.

On DivineCaroline.com, there are a list of to-do’s that may help you get over the Monday blues. We figured we’d take a look at that list for some pointers in order to come up with one of our own. After all, we actually love Mondays, here at Synergy. It gives us the opportunity to get back to speaking with our clients about the wonders of our amazing products. But let’s not digress.

Breathe. Sometimes the best advice is the simplest. The website – dedicated to empowerment of women – advises that you simply take some time to breathe deeply for a short while right after waking up. It helps both relax your mind and get the oxygen adequately pumping throughout your system, readying you for the day.

Think Positive. It’s easy to get annoyed at having to wake up to go to work. Try rearranging your thoughts and focusing on the good things that await you this week. Prepare yourself for positive outcomes and they will more likely become actualities. As DivineCaroline.com puts it, “if you think good things, good things will happen.”

Shower. Many people like to shower the night before in order to give themselves more time in the morning. And while there is nothing wrong with this, you may want to grab yourself a quick one in the morning to help wake you up. Feeling fresh and re-energized is definitely a great way to start your week.

Play Music. Why not pump some tunes as soon as you get up in the morning? Put on something with a good beat that will literally compel you to sing and dance yourself all the way to work. They say that “music soothes the savage beast” and it also soothes the soul. Don’t be afraid to wake up the kids with some music too! Why not get your entire home off to a rockin’ start?

Eat Breakfast. Don’t forget the most important meal of your day. Beginning the day with a good breakfast will make all the difference in the world. Be sure to avoid sugar so as to not have yourself crash from a sugar high during the day. But don’t deprive your body of the fuel it needs to get throughout the day. It needs its fuel, so fill it up first thing!