Posts Tagged ‘partner’
How to Find More Customers
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012Three Things You Must Do to Attract People to Your Business
One of the greatest challenges for a young business is getting customer traction. This rarely happens overnight; however, it won’t cost a fortune or take forever when you apply these three practices:
1. Optimize the message. Make sure the message is clear. The content of the press release, the tweet, the Facebook post must be concise and to the point. We live in an era of multi-media, so the message can also have embedded video and photos. The old way of doing press releases is dead. Press releases are also searchable by keyword phrases. Make sure your press and social media is written so reporters and media professionals can find you.
2. Open a dialogue. Make sure you can listen to your customers as well as you can talk to them. Gone are the days when you use your mouth, but not your ears. When you write a press release, tweet or post a blog or Facebook entry, you need to give your audience the opportunity to reply AND you must have a way to collect those replies. Using your mouth and ears must be followed by using your brain to evolve your message and your business.
3. Be consistent. Be constant. Be patient. One tweet or press release won’t do anything. One thousand tweets or ten press releases in one day won’t either. A steady flow of information reinforces your message and steadily reminds your customers about your business. Trust isn’t built on a one night stand. Trust is built over time, so understand that you must commit time and discipline to your PR and social media activity.
We constantly hear from fellow entrepreneurs who want a winning PR and social media strategy, but they don’t believe they have the time or the money. Well, it doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars each month or take half of each day to get results.
We found a solution.
We found a solution we like so well that we partnered with them to bring it to you. A company called Vocus, based in Maryland, has created a suite of PR and marketing tools just for startups and small businesses.
From a single dashboard, we can
- Create press releases and deliver them to thousands of reporters and journalists,
- Track activity in our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and receive suggestions for engaging our audience, and
- Receive inquiries from journalists and bloggers who are looking to write stories that could feature us.
Using Vocus, our followers and interaction have increased on Twitter and Facebook and we’re spending much less time while getting better results. Vocus is easy enough to use that you can be completely new to PR or social media and become proficient within a day. Vocus also has great white papers, guides and webinars to educate you on the latest trends and strategies in public relations and social media.
Check it out. They have given us a deal to share with the ActSeed community, and you can see it firsthand in a really compelling personalized demo by clicking here.
Your Ideal Source of Cash…
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011…is from customers!
A great way to grow your business: find new customers using daily deals from GroupPrice. ActSeed likes Group Price because they enable you to increase your sales with no upfront marketing expenses while cutting your costs with daily deals from other small businesses.
Problem
One of the growth problems for startups is getting more cash coming in than is going out. Cash is the fuel that powers a business. Not receivables or IOUs, but cash in the bank. You must positively impact your cash two ways:
- Increase revenues by attracting new paying customers
- Reduce expenses by finding great deals for the business services you need
Solution
ActSeed has partnered with GroupPrice to help you tap this innovative marketplace to boost your business in two important ways:
- Spark an increase in sales by tapping new customers without any upfront marketing or advertising expense.
- Find daily deals on products and services aimed at your start up or small businesses with discounts up to 80%.
How to Maximize the Benefits from the ActSeed-GroupPrice Partnership
Two steps. Both are free.
1. Register with GroupPrice so you can buy and sell on the GroupPrice marketplace.
2. Register with ActSeed where you can access exclusive promotions and discounts from our leading partners like GroupPrice.
Like Fox Business TV, we think Group Price is like Groupon® – but dedicated to entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses.
Summary
ActSeed and GroupPrice are aligned in a commitment to helping you find sources of capital and streams of revenue. Cash is king. Heck, cash is also queen, prince and the whole royal court.
Forrester Research has identified that “daily deals for business is a persistent and growing trend.” Startups and small businesses – the backbone of the US economy – have been badly weakened by the recession, but sites like Group Price are helping them recover and grow.
Raise your revenue. Cut your costs. Do both using GroupPrice.
…Now that’s an obvious partnership that ActSeed can champion.
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Accessing the World from Your Own Back Yard
Monday, May 9th, 2011It’s not uncommon that a startup in the USA has an almost immediate international presence, and it’s also not uncommon that entrepreneurs from other countries are trying to access US markets.
While we often talk about how the Internet shrinks borders and facilitates commerce, sometimes a “good ole fashioned” cross-border support group works well, too.
One good example of cross-border collaboration that is helping entrepreneurs and startup businesses in two countries is the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce (“SACC”), and ActSeed is proud to be a partner with the San Diego chapter. Founded in 1988, SACC-USA is the umbrella organization for 19 regional Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce across the United States. The SACC serves more than 2,300 members in Sweden and the US. 
The mission of the SACC is to facilitate and support trade, commerce, and investment between the US and Sweden – helping Swedish companies find the right partners in the USA and vice versa. This is achieved through effective industry specific programs and events, corporate programs, trade missions, business matchmaking and lots of ”good old fashioned” networking.
The SACC San Diego was founded in 1989 as one of the first local Swedish chambers in America. The Swedish American Chamber of Commerce in San Diego is a non-profit organization with the goal to promote, develop, and increase the Swedish–American contacts and interactions in the greater San Diego area.
More and more, the San Diego SACC is becoming involved in the local San Diego startup scene. Entrepreneurs from both countries are starting to collaborate on projects and help each other tap new markets and find investors. Through the international partnership between the SACC and ActSeed, we can help make sure entrepreneurs, investors and work-seekers in the US are aware of the opportunities emanating from and within Sweden while also helping entrepreneurs and investors in Sweden learn how to leverage ActSeed to participate in business creation and growth in the US.
You can learn more about the San Diego Swedish American Chamber of Commerce by clicking here.
Also, if you are involved with the San Diego SACC and are interested in joining ActSeed’s “Entrepreneur Group“, you can use discount code “SDSACC12″ to receive a 10% discount on either a monthly or annual membership.
If you are an investor from Sweden and want to find startups or small businesses in the US in which to invest, please join ActSeed’s “Investor Group” and start tracking deals; it takes about 15 minutes to get set up and costs nothing for the investor.
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