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It’s no secret that having a business is stressful. There are problems that you cannot sometimes fix despite all your efforts. It can cause your mental and emotional state to fall off the edge. Fortunately, there are specific things you can do to avoid severe stress when managing your business.

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Develop Multiple Backup Plans

As a business owner, you might think having one or two backup plans is okay. But I suppose you might be wrong. When handling a business, you need to learn to have multiple backup plans to save your business from failing. It would be best if you started by defining your needs. Do not always compromise on what’s in front of you because situations can get messy despite your effort to keep things according to your plan. It would be best if you created strategy after strategy to avoid losing all your resources, energy, time, and money.

Focus On Your Goal

The main reason a business becomes so stressful is when you have many things in your mind that you want to do with your business. As a business owner, you need to be specific about the goal that you want to achieve. Use the business mission and vision. Refrain from overthinking other things that can make you lose interest in your business. Always stick to the plan and work according to your goal. If you want your business to venture out into something, ensure that you are prepared for the possible risks and future struggles.

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Don’t Overspend On Inappropriate Things

Having a business is often trial and error. There are things you don’t know that can influence you to try and take a new perspective. However, along with that enthusiasm comes with financial burden most of the time. Your decision to change something in the business or try to consider an upgrade can require you to spend. To avoid another financial loss, list all the important things you think you need and, from there, crash out some that aren’t worth buying.

Learn To Know What’s More Important

In a business setup, some things often take so much of all your resources. These include human resources, daily expenses, loss, hidden charges, and schedules. Sometimes, these components that you often miscalculate and consider inessentials are the things that bring your business down. So before that happens, you need to learn what is important inside your business. Take time to evaluate the things that keep you from creating a productive result. From there, change or address the issue before it gets worse.

Maintain A Normal Routine

Your business is important, and so is your overall health. To fight stress, you need to understand that what you do daily contributes greatly to your emotional and mental wellness. Therefore, you must be certain to make a normal routine that doesn’t compromise your health. You have to follow a regular course of habit that encourages you to live physically, emotionally, and mentally stable. Always help yourself to become better each day.

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Do Not Hesitate To Delegate

One thing that business owners need to understand is that their business is not a one-person team. There are a lot of tasks that need to be done, and you need help to handle everything. It is wise to have other people work on it, especially on those duties and responsibilities that you can’t handle or are not familiar with. Value the importance of delegating a task because that’s the only way for your business to survive. Delegating helps grow and develop your business’s positive work influence.

Let Go Of What You Can’t Control

A stressful business always has something to do with what you want but can’t achieve. Sometimes, it becomes very daunting when you only want what’s best for your company, so you put up a lot of effort, time, and money and gain a negative result. Trying so hard to be the best or perfecting something that isn’t is what makes you fail. Instead, it would be best to learn to let go of the things you can’t control. Whether it’s your daily sales, the number of customers, required savings, etc., be contended.

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Increase Your Mental Stamina

Your business won’t stop giving you a headache. It’s part of it. These stress-related issues you deal with it are what make it more challenging. To bear and fight with it, you must increase your mental stamina. Start by thinking positively. Always remember that your mindset defines your ability. Thus you need to visualize, slow down, rest, and reset. Practice mindfulness and develop a routine that helps with your mental ability, such as exercising, getting enough sleep, keeping a journal, and practicing self-compassion.

Insight

These steps are proven effective for stress-free business management. However, if these don’t work and do not guarantee better results, try consulting a professional therapist. Allow them to help you with your stress management problems so that you can handle your business better.

Ever since I graduated college, I always have been open to ideas. Thus, I always take risks and come up with business concepts. I make my own brand instead of venturing into a franchise. But complications still pushed me to close all my successful businesses, and I am about to share them with you in this article.

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The Business Endeavor

My passion is cooking, so I started a food business five years ago. At first, it was more of a pre-order setup where my customers, particularly friends, co-workers, and family relatives, are the ones who are constantly buying from me. Then after a couple of months, I went to the outside market where friends of friends recommended my food.

It was a fulfilling and financially rewarding business because I never really had to spend a lot. I remember back then that the only few investments I considered big were buying cooking pieces of equipment only. I didn’t buy things I didn’t need and only used the ones available at home. It was one of the perks of the pre-order food business.

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The Success

The business garnered enough clients to make it profitable. The revenue got big that I decided to open up a small diner. There, I managed to put up quite an amount for the investment. I rented a small space, renovated it, bought tables and chairs, completed all the kitchen equipment, and hired a couple of crews. Admittedly, it was a tough decision because I had to risk all my savings to make my small restaurant come to life.

Fortunately, I managed to run the diner. Since people are already familiar with my small restaurants’ dishes, I never really worry about marketing the product. The success of my business continually grows, and I am sure it will solve all my financial problems.

Source: pixabay.com

The Downfall

My business was thriving, and people loved my products. I have sales revenue every day, and I am thankful I never have to worry about major financial issues since I was already saving some every month.

But then here comes the pandemic. The local unit in our area told me that I had closed my business for a couple of weeks because of COVID-19. I abide by the rules. I was never worried since they told me things would be better after a couple of days, and I would have to wait for the memo about when to operate again.

Unfortunately, the lockdowns are extending to the point that I can no longer buy the supplies I need for my food business. For the next six months, I was left with a memo not to open my store. The sad part is that I still have to pay the monthly rent and bills.

Then there came a local memo that food stores could now operate. However, takes outs only and dine-in customers are prohibited. I thought that it was the solution that I had been waiting for. So I opened the business again and operated it. Sadly, the income was never the same. I was spending more on the staff and supplies of the diner without getting even with the financial gain. I tried to get by and maintain the store without noticing that I had already spent all my remaining savings.

Source: pixabay.com

The Struggle

I was hopeful that things would still become okay and that the lockdowns and restrictions would soon come to an end. But I was wrong. Days, weeks, months, and another year passed, and I was left with less and less income. Fewer and fewer people were coming to the store. It was the time that people were starting to learn to cook at home and did not want to buy cooked food outside.

Then I got frustrated. I never imagined that all those times I am trying to get by, my debts are piling up. The moment I realized that I owe a lot of people a lot of money, my mental and emotional state fell. All the stress smashed over me, leaving me with depression and anxiety.

I got bedridden due to the physical effect of depression. That was the moment I decided to stop and close the business. I sold everything, and the money from those was the one I used to pay my debts.

Takeaway

If I learn one thing from experience, it is to know when it is not worth continuing. I was so optimistic that I didn’t look closer to reality. I was so confident about my business that I never considered the possibility of failure. I was so hopeful and positive that I didn’t consider pausing for my mental and emotional health.

So if you want to try and start a business, remember that optimism is not always a great quality. Sometimes, you need to stand in front of reality to better make a realistic decision.

Are You About To Start A Business?

Perhaps you wanted to start your own business because you see the lifestyle of a successful business owner on social media. Or perhaps you want to start because you know many business people who are making a good amount of money with their entrepreneurial skills. Or maybe you know someone living a luxurious life due to the companies they run. And because you want what these people have, you tell yourself that you can also make it because they made it.

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Honestly, that is a good sign that you are looking at a different perspective. With that mentality, you can gain confidence and self-awareness. It is the idea of being in control that persuades numerous to start projects. They have no clue about the cash that is required or the sort of persistence they need to have until their projects come up to a specific level for them to make back the initial investment or create gains from the project.

Start with…

Do A Reality Check

When NOT To Start Your Business

However, starting up a business doesn’t happen overnight. There are lots of things you need to consider to come up with a better project plan. You don’t just go, choose, copy, and start a project that you know nothing about.

Warning signs that tell if you are not ready to start your business just yet:

Business Tip #1

Don’t Start Business If You’re Broke

All businesses require financial needs, and some successful companies spend almost all their wealth on creating one. If you do not have enough money, do not start your business. Any business requires a lot of time to mature and generate profit. Therefore, if you think you will get a lot of cash once you opened up a business, you are wrong.

A starting business doesn’t generate instant financial stability.

If you get lucky, your business might generate income after six months or per year. If there are obstacles and your business is taking the steps slowly, it might generate an income not after two to three years, depending on its situation in the market. Business owners do not make a profit until many years.

Source: pixabay.com

Business Tip #2

Don’t Start Business That You Know Nothing About

You should not start your project when you don’t understand the industry. It does not mean that you will also do good in the project you would start because other people are good at doing something.

To make money in every business, you have to understand what’s in the business for you. If you don’t know the industry, don’t jump into it.

But if it is something that you are more than willing to take the risk and learn, then that is the time you can convince yourself to engage. But if you don’t like or love what you are doing and you are only into business just because you saw someone making rounds of money over it, you will fail your business and yourself. However, it would be great even to have a little idea of how that particular business industry operates. Ask yourself if you can contribute something to that business you want to start up and learn something from scratch.

Business Tip #3

Don’t Start Business If You Are The Weak Type

Yes. Before starting up a business, you need to be mentally, physically, and emotionally tough. That way, you can endure pain and misery for a long period. You need to determine what are the prices you are willing to take to accomplish your desired success. Remember that almost all entrepreneurs experienced all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional pain, and not every one of them conquered it. Some of them struggled only to get a small portion of success. If you are open to taking that risk, then you can proceed to start your business. But if you think you couldn’t handle it, then better not start your business just yet. The learning curve of a business is steep, and

it takes a few heartaches, frustrations, and exhaustion before you can get a sense of what you are genuinely doing.

There are many consequences in business that might put you in an unfortunate situation and can entirely damage your overall well-being.

Source: pixabay.com

Business Tip #3

Don’t Start Business If You Want More Free Time

Everyone discusses the good things in starting up a business, but nobody talks about its dark side. If you think that starting up a business can give you a lot of free time, you are kidding yourself. Your business can take so much of your time almost your entire life. So if you think that you can quit your job just because you started your own business, you are making things complicated. A business can only guarantee your free time once it lasted for about a decade. During the first few years of investing in the business, you wouldn’t get anything. Running your own business is far more than a nine-to-five job because it is on your mind 24/7. Business can deprive you of sleep, make you care for yourself less, complicate your relationship with other people, etc. Starting up a business requires all your energy and time.

 

Running A Business Startup

Did it ever occur to you how it is to run a startup? Have you ever had that feeling that there is not enough time in a day to get things done? In terms of handling personal matters and going for a business startup, you experienced a lot of pressure. When venturing out into a business, the problems do not just send in one task. There are always more and more things piling up nonstop.

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With this, even the smallest things become so overwhelming, especially if you need to comply and accomplish all of them simultaneously. That could lead to a series of mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, and depression.

Startup Stress: Business Pressure Can Be Overwhelming

The Stress Of A Startup Business

Stress is an inevitable thing, and when it gets to you, it can ruin even the greatest ideas you have for your startup. Fortunately, there are things you can do to help yourself manage. Note that these tips helped a lot of people perform and function better. But it does not guarantee to work well with your physical, mental, and emotional needs. But for what it’s worth, you can still try and incorporate these to better manage your personal life and mental health startups.

Value Progress Over Perfection

A lot of times, when you try to accomplish things, you always have that preference. You want to make everything perfect, and you want things to go along with the plan. But you can never make things right without making a mistake. Almost always, constantly wanting perfection is a bad thing as it potentially slows down your progress. Therefore, forget trying to make everything perfect. Because chances are, things are not going to be perfect anyway. You will only end up chasing something that is almost non-existent.

Instead, work on ways to improve better what you already started. Note in mind that in every startup, the things you started to put in the marketplace need a constant tweak.

It’s Okay To Make Mistakes

Whatever good and perfect product or project you put on paper does not always go along with the execution. You need to have that specific flexibility to pivot to create ideas, build a mindset, and manage business behaviors. Be okay with making mistakes so you can learn from them. You do not have to get things right all the time. As long as you are moving forward with the business and creating something better one step at a time, you will be a little closer to your goals.

Please value progress over perfection.

Source: pixabay.com

startup business

Business Tips To Live By When You’re Running A Startup:

Write Down The Things You Need To Do In Your Day

When handling your starting business, you do not just go out there and do things according to your choices. You don’t just act on your will because you need to have a list of things to follow. Everything you do in your entire startup should flow according to the desired progress that benefits you and your business.

It is not just about scheduling your day and gearing up and prioritizing your obligations. It is more like trying your best to accomplish what you already planned in the exact moment.

In a project that just commenced, career skills are a must. Begin improving skills.

Make Sure There Is Always A Good Outcome On The Things You Need To Do

Often, the problem with writing down the things you need to accomplish has something to do with distractions. You thought that some of the stuff listed in your daily goals are the priorities you need to take. But they usually end up as undesirable task that only takes so much of your time and energy. So when writing a to-do list, always ensure that those things can put up an outcome. You need to block out every single task that you have to do to avoid inserting nonsense agendas.

Be mindful of protecting your time.

Source: pixabay.com

Business Startup Tips

Focus On Your Strength And Do Things One At A Time

You often get stressed out because you spend a lot of time outside your capability zone. Meaning, your emotional and mental ability lose their potential because you keep engaging with pressure. To avoid getting stressed out, you have to understand that you are not born capable of everything. Therefore, instead of constantly thinking about your weaknesses, focus on your strength. Find a way to use your ability to help you accomplish tasks.

Thoughts

The problem with starting up a business is that you can never do everything. Therefore, you need to delegate the smaller task. It will not only save your time but will also help you understand the significance of teamwork. You need to realize that your weaknesses can be other individuals’ strengths. When you delegate and outsource the work to those people with potential, you will free up a lot of time, emotional space, and mental bandwidth. From there, you can focus on valuable activities that are more income-generating.

Remember…

Do not do everything yourself when starting a business because that is the thing that can hold you back from moving to the next level.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a mental health startup?
What companies are working to improve mental health?
Are mental health blogs profitable?
How to invest in mental health stocks?
How to make money with mental health?
What is a mental investment?
What are the 4 main Behavioural investment types?
What is an example of a mental accounting investment?
What is an example of a mental accounting business?
What is mental budgeting?
What are the types of mental accounts?
Who invented mental accounting?
What are the disadvantages of mental accounting?
What are the benefits of mental accounting?
What are the core principles of mental accounting?

The health sector nowadays has stepped up big time to break the stigma on cognitive health. Intertwining science, technology, and medicine, more and more digital mental health startups have risen in this arena. Read on to engage with their products and mental health services, depending on your needs and mental health issues.

All About Mental Health Startups

Clarigent Health

Some mental health professionals or health providers find it challenging to diagnose and treat mental illnesses virtually since it can be challenging to diagnose through telemedicine startups. Unless they’re taking tests and medication care management or doing in-depth interviews during the virtual care, it’s difficult to note if they’re undergoing anxiety disorders, major depression, or mental health problems.

With Clarigent Health, an American company, accomplishing this task is more manageable than ever. They developed a health platform with the foundation of AI and machine learning (ML), which will help detect cognitive health conditions in its first stages. Basically, it’s a clinical decision support tool. Its goal is to provide mental health care professionals with insights regarding suicide ideation and other connected cognitive health conditions.

Meditopia

Yes, there are a lot of mental health apps available in the market already. However, what’s lacking with their mental health treatment innovations is the option of personalizing and tailor-fitting it to their cognitive health care or mental wellness needs. With Meditopia platform, you get to do this unique feature.

Meditopia is a Turkish startup that aims to address psychological health problems through a prescription digital therapeutics meditation app. It includes instructions for deep breathing, relaxation, and other techniques to combat or manage stress and anxiety. It achieves this by offering personalized meditation sessions as part of mental health care. It also banks on the concept of using art to lower stress levels.

They offer unique bedtime stories that will revolve around mental health illness, stress, and more. They also post various music choices that will help reduce stress anxiety levels and cope with daily stress. It’s also a way to relax and look for ways to sleep properly. You may even create your playlist so you won’t have to go over it manually every day.

Panion

This mental healthcare medication-assisted health treatment startup cause is something that has never been done before. Panion was founded in Malmo, Sweden, in 2018. As of October 2020, it now has 150,000 downloads, 110,000 registered, 4,000 gatherings, and more than 40,000 initiated chats. So what does it do?

It is a search engine that guides you into looking for like-minded people that are near you. Its algorithm relies on searchable and taggable values such as values, experiences, gender, interests, and more. It came up with a matchmaking system that will connect individuals based on similar and overlapping keywords and their primary location. Once you set your preferred data, you may join live “gatherings” in your area to be able to connect with these people and rely on support group services and continuously use it as a health platform or mental healthcare approach.

Part of the mental health treatment plan you can use is to keep in mind that this does not work like a dating app. Instead, it banks on the idea of looking for a common group of friends that you can hang out with so that you get to address the problem of isolation. It is a way to improve cognitive wellness and overall modern health systems.

Lifesum

Mental health space does not only revolve around brain health, emotions, and overall well-being. Nutrition and exercise also impact this area. Therefore, if you’re experiencing an imbalance between these two, it is most likely that it would take a toll on your mental health. Lifesum aims to be your partner of choice in the physical aspect.

This Swedish health tech startup offers exercises, tracks calorie intake, and provides nutritional information. Once they crunch all of these data, they develop a personalized plan to address your health problems. They help you come up with better food choices and improve your exercise habits. Aside from this, they also provide some reads on the importance of physical health to the cognitive aspect.

Sentio Solutions

Individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders, or more require continuous monitoring and handling of cognitive health support tools to ensure that they do not get overwhelmed by their own emotions. Simultaneously, this is also essential as it tracks the changes in emotional patterns and habits every day.

With this in mind, Sentio Solutions, a USA-based company, came up with Feel. It is an emotion-sensing wristband that has an installed app that offers real-time monitoring of the emotional and cognitive aspects. It also comes up with personalized and tailored health care interventions to support its users.

Keep in mind that this is not just any ordinary health startup app. It bases its approach on different evidence-based behavioral challenge techniques such as Positive Psychology, Mindfulness, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as part of health plans. It also integrates the startup’s proprietary emotion recognition technology.

Moodpath

A mood track is essential for those with bipolar disorders and depression. They provide awareness to the individuals’ mental health care and use all of the information for a steadier and more client based effective recovery process.

With this in mind, Moodpath, a German mental health startup, came up with its own cognitive health company. This digital mental health clinic app asks daily questions to its users to evaluate their overall well-being. It also has an algorithm that will be able to screen them and check whether they have cognitive illness, behavioral health, or depression symptoms.

After all of these steps, the app generates electronic documents that will serve as the monitoring sheet. Your in-person therapist can use the results here in consultations. 

Understanding Mental Health Startups

Smashing the taboo of the global mental health market is complicated and challenging, not to mention the healthcare costs. But with the success stories of all these top mental health startups, we can say nothing is impossible. We have to take it one step at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is A Cognitive Wellness Startup?

What Companies Are Working To Improve Mental Health?

Are Mental Health Blogs Profitable?

How To Invest In Cognitive Wellness Stocks?

How To Make Money With Cognitive Wellness? What Is A Cognitive Investment?

What Are The 4 Main Behavioural Investment Types?

What Is An Example Of A Mental Accounting Investment?

What Is An Example Of A Mental Accounting Business?

What Is Mental Budgeting?

What Are The Types Of Cognitive Accounts?

Who Invented Cognitive Accounting?

What Are The Disadvantages Of Cognitive Accounting?

What Are The Benefits Of Cognitive Accounting?

What Are The Core Principles Of Cognitive Accounting?

 

 

Source: en.wikipedia.org

 

We live in an extremely perplexing ‘new normal’ as this coronavirus crisis spreads throughout the world. From managing the transformations to physical distancing, children learning from home, dealing with abandoned projects, canceled travels, working at home, ad taking proper precautionary measures every time we leave the house, everyone is trying to get accustomed to the changes.

 

Social media listeners and viewers are feeling susceptible and sympathetic as well. As a business, we must be meticulous in sending messages that do not cause misinterpretation. If you are having trouble engaging your social media followers and keeping them safe and informed, read on, and learn about a few do’s and don’ts for social media during COVID times.

 

What to do:

 

• Prioritize your audience. Take advantage of the time to establish trust and reach out to more clients. Provide useful resources, promos, free products, or even an ear to listen to them if they wish to vent out their concerns. Be updated. If someone is seeking help, be sure that you are equipped with simple tips that you can share with them.

 

• Keep in touch with your team. Being part of a team means that you have a manager, staff, and other members that you need to take care of. Ensure that all your team members are on the same page on the techniques that you will assume.

Source: medium.com

• Assure them that you are there. Reply to the messages of your audience. People who are in self-isolation would be grateful to hear a live voice that they can talk to about relevant and even irrelevant matters.

 

• Take note of your high-ranking articles and repost them. Don’t throw your old posts to the archive. Reuse them once, so you don’t need to be too anxious about writing new content. It is one of the best practices to use articles more than once, so it should be nothing to worry about. Also, it’s practical to double-check your scheduled postings, unscheduled posts that you think are not supposed to be posted during this time, and just save them for when they can be reused at the right time.

 

• Take a break. Rest when you can from social media. Sometimes, you may need to prioritize your well-being as well as your family’s well-being. When you’re rejuvenated and reenergized, you can reach out and show empathy towards others. When people are lonely, you can efficiently communicate with them live and, in a way, help make their lives easier.

Source: pxfuel.com

What not to do:

• Don’t provide updates about the pandemic. Of course, in most of your posts and emails, you can’t help but mention the current pandemic, but just make sure that you don’t add to your audience’s anxiety by spreading incorrect information. Let the proper authorities give them the updates.

 

• Do not take advantage of the current crisis. This is not the time to boast or think about gaining something out of this unfortunate situation. These are times when you must show humility and strive to be able to serve your followers the best way that you can.

 

• Do not force them to spend too much. We are talking about your business, so naturally, you are still trying to earn, but do not do it by being insensitive to their feelings. This is especially true if you are in the luxury business. Perhaps you can reevaluate the dates of your promos and new releases.

 

• Never email your followers about your emergency plan unless they are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you have been paying attention, you’ll know that almost all businesses are creating email lists about their plans during and after the crisis. Some companies do need to, but if your plan may impact only a few individuals, it’s better to send them direct emails as a way of respecting your audience.

Source: wallpaperflare.com

• Do not give up. This is crucial, particularly if you are a company, a small business owner creating your social media. You might feel stressed, angry, or anxious about the circumstances or the people handling the present pandemic. Of course, you have the right to express your opinions appropriately, but you also need to make sure that your account does not become a page where people often see negativity. Do not give up on your business. Use social media to your advantage.

 

 

 

 

 

Source: nosalcentral.com

Now more than ever, people are becoming internet-addicted, especially since the social distancing and shelter-in-place protocols. The World Wide Web has undeniably become a vital part of everyone’s lives. It is used for a variety of reasons – business, leisure, news, and whatnot. For someone who wants to earn a living through the Internet, web presence is pretty significant.

What is web presence?

Web presence may be a business or a person that has built a name in the world wide web through social media, email, a blog, or a website. An online presence offers several opportunities to advertise yourself and your business, so an excellent web presence really does matter because it improves reputation and increases sales. Customers can find details about your company and can definitely do business with you online. But before anything, here are some questions to answer when building your website.

• Do you have an existing website? Is it updated?
• What about your social media posts and profiles? Are they informative and interesting enough?
• Do you have articles on your website that are unique and helpful?
• Does your site have reviews?

People go online to find information that they need, and if your website has what they are looking for, they will find it and stay on it. Even the smallest business can most certainly benefit from a great website. Be sure you have these elements in your site:

Source: which.co.uk

• Your business can be conveniently found on the World Wide Web.
• There are thousands of small and big companies online that will motivate you to do better.
• Your site must be accessible from anywhere in the world.
• Your products and services must be legit and of good quality for starters.

How can I build a robust web presence?

Without a good web presence, your business won’t catch the attention that it needs to prosper. Establishing an online presence is not a quick process. Here are a few components that you need to consider first.

Website. This is the biggest part of your web presence. It is a virtual business card for your company where people can see what you stand for, how you can help them, why they should patronize your products or services. It must be well-designed with a lot of quality content. Also, consider SEO.

Social Media Platforms. A great way to advertise for free would be to utilize platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You can efficiently communicate with your customers here and will allow you to establish trust and among them. To widen your audience, you can also link your social media profiles to other social networks as well.

Blogs. These are powerful tools that you can use to reach out to your customers. Write blogs that are SEO-optimized with content that provides positive content about your business. Aside from the ones that you create, you can also link other equally good blogs to your site as well.

Source: bmmagazine.co.uk

Forums. Forums are virtual groups that talk and discuss recent events, popular products and services, and others. Be in the know, especially about the COVID-19 pandemic and what people need during this time. Joining forums allows you to be updated on the present circumstances and helps you establish a new customer base.

How important is web presence during an outbreak?

While your business used to be complete with a display of your products or services in a cozy shop downtown, it won’t do much good during this outbreak, especially with the implementation of quarantine and shelter-in-place protocols. This is where the relevance of having a strong web presence comes into play. The presentation of your brick and mortar business needs to be converted into a website that depicts the purposes and values of your products or services. Create your web presence in a way that shows your customers that amidst this global crisis, your business can make a difference.

 

 

 

 

Online marketing shouldn’t be challenging to do if you have strategies in place. This article is Part 2, and Part 1 was discussed last week. Take a look at the previous blog for more ideas.

And with that, we continue with this one.

Partner Up With Social Media Influencers.

It is possible to acquire more followers without even posting new information. This is possible if you partner with social media influencers. Marketing through social media influencers is a very fast-growing way to gain new customers.

When most people think about social media influencers, they usually think about famous athletes and celebrities. However, forming a marketing relationship with an outstanding athlete or a celebrity may be too expensive for most small companies. Some social media influencers are not as famous but still have a lot of followers. If they are still too expensive, you could partner with social media influencers with fewer followers. Some of these will even post about your product in exchange for free goods.

Take Advantage of Automation Resources.

Running a small company takes a lot of time and effort. Running an online marketing campaign on social media will add to your long list of responsibilities. Generating content to post every day alone takes a lot of time and effort. You could hire someone to run your online marketing campaign, but most small companies might not have the budget for that. You could take advantage of automation tools to help you out. For example, there are automation tools that will allow you to schedule your posts. You can generate a week’s worth of content and then schedule them to be posted every day.

Laura JJ Dessauer Ed.D., L.M.H.C. suggests, “Create a newsletter or ezine. You’ll be able to stay in connection with your current clients and anyone who is interested in your services, making it easier to market your services and products in the future.”

Inspire Users To Generate Content.

“Marketers and advertising agencies are coming to realize that they have been speaking to only the most superficial part of the mind, the conscious part. For many years now, marketers have known that the emotional impact of the message is what leads customers to act,” wrote psychologist and psychoanalyst Ken Eisold, Ph.D. Content generated by users is very influential. Eighty-eight percent of customers in the USA state that they trust a product recommendation if it comes from a friend. Ninety percent of customers in the USA state that product recommendations from other online users profoundly influence them. And eighty-one percent of customers state that they are willing to pay more for a product that has user reviews compared to a cheaper item that has no user reviews.

Use Ephemeral Content.

A standard post is not the same as a temporary post. Ephemeral content is posted that is displayed for a certain length of time like one day. SnapChat and Instagram are the most common social media sites where you can see ephemeral content. Both social media sites have a feature called story.

Posting ephemeral content is useful if you wish to post more than once each day. Followers hate it if their timelines are flooded by posts. If you post on the Instagram story, the timelines of your social media followers will not be spammed.

Stream Live Videos.

Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook allow you to stream live videos. Live videos are often better than videos that are not live. Live videos receive ten times more comments than videos that are not live. And the viewer time for live videos is three times longer than videos that are not live.

Streaming a video live is a wonderful way to hold question and answer sessions, to show company events, and to distribute product demos. Chris Kutarna, Ph.D. explains, “External platforms for learning boast millions more users than any in-house training department ever could, and they can, therefore, mine better insights (via pattern-recognition) to create better learning pathways for learners. The amount of data (and cheap data storage) that we now have available to train computer algorithms, thanks to the billions of pictures and voice streams and digital transactions that we all generate each day, every day, of our lives.”

You have now a handful of online marketing ideas. Was it hard to grasp? Are these strategies challenging to perform? These ideas are very doable. You need to work on it.

Online marketing on social media has become a necessity for small companies these days. Several small companies have the mistaken belief that social media is not necessary for them. They believe that it is sufficient for their small company that their customers know about them and know how to contact them.

It is good that they already have a steady customer base. However, online marketing on social media allows a small company to earn more from their current customers. And social media can help them gain new customers. “Consumers also tell us how their decision-making comes about. When we ask how they make purchase decisions, consumers talk about their mental processes; describing how they investigate and weigh product features, consider such factors as how the benefits of one brand stacks up against the competition and which is the best value for their money,” Peter Noel Murray, Ph.D. explains.” Therefore, not having an effective strategy for online marketing on social media can be bad for small companies. Below are some strategies and tips for effective online marketing on social media.

Create Accounts On Several Social Media Sites

Many small companies already have a Facebook account. It is suitable for a company to have a Facebook account. But it is only a step in the proper direction. Small companies should not just stop at Facebook for their social media presence. You will need to create accounts on several social media sites.

Facebook is indeed the most commonly used social media site by small companies. Eighty-six percent of small companies have a Facebook account. But other social media sites are also used by small companies. Forty-eight percent of small companies use Instagram. Forty-six percent use YouTube. Forty-four percent use Twitter. Thirty-one percent use LinkedIn. And twenty-five percent use SnapChat. LinkedIn will be beneficial for small companies that are engaged in B2B. And SnapChat is ideal for small companies whose target market is the Generation Z niche.

Determine The Online Marketing Objectives Of Your Company

Do not just post content haphazardly or randomly. You need to determine what your online marketing objectives will be. The online marketing goal of seventy percent of small companies is to generate leads. For fifty-three percent of small companies, the goal is to build awareness of their brand. And for fifty percent of small companies, the goal is to engage their customers. You can also have other marketing objectives other than these three. Your goal could be to use social media to supply improved customer service. Or your goal could be to enhance the direct sales of your product.

Utpal Dholakia, Ph.D., author of The Science Behind Behavior blog and is a professor of marketing at Rice University in Houston, Texas, found out that “…many marketers have moved away from maintaining proprietary online communities to social media that require less commitment such as Facebook and Instagram.” He suggests, “Simply give them an opportunity to join an affiliation group of their choice on your site or store and to express their admiration for groups they already admire and love, nothing more. The positive feelings will transfer to the company’s brands and produce more engaged and profitable customers.”

Post Relevant Information Every Single Day

Once you have created accounts on several social media sites, you have to ensure that those accounts do not become inactive. If a potential customer comes across one of your social media accounts and sees that the latest post is more than a month old, they are very unlikely to follow your account. You also need to consider the customers who are currently following your accounts. They usually will not visit your accounts to see what is new with your company. You need to post new information that will show up on their timelines and homepages.

Only fifty-two percent of small companies post new information every day. You will have an advantage over your competition if they do not post every day while you do.

Encourage Customers To Follow Your Accounts

Your social media accounts need to acquire many followers. The more followers your accounts have, the more successful your online marketing on social media will be. Without any followers, nobody will be able to see the information that you post. You can turn these followers into buying customers. Fifty-seven and a half percent of customers are more likely to buy from companies whose social media accounts they follow.

You could encourage customers to follow your accounts by running a contest. Or you could regularly post discounts or sales promos. But be careful that you do not post too many promos. Forty-six percent of customers report that they will unfollow companies who post too many promos. Gad Saad, Ph.D., author of The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption (Marketing and Consumer Psychology Series) explains, “To study consumer behavior is to explore human nature at its most fundamental level using the modern world as its backdrop.  And the process of understanding our consummatory nature involves all of the functional areas that psychologists typically are interested in including perception. learning, memory, persuasion, motivation, affect, attitude formation, decision making, personality, and culture.”

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Next week, more strategies will be discussed.