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In this article:\nWhy use a business email address\nHow to create a business email account\nTips for using your business email address\nIf you’re still using a generic Gmail, Yahoo, or other email account for your business, we’re here to tell you that it’s time to stop. Your business deserves a branded email account, and you deserve the benefits that come from it. \nWhat is a business email account and why is it important?\nA business email account is more than just an email that you use for business. It’s an email account that is branded by your domain (in other words, \nyour business’s website\n). So, instead of using joesmith@gmail.com you would use joe@[yourdomain].com. \nAnyone can create a free Gmail or other email account using your business’s name and pretend to be your business. But only your business can use an email that is on a domain that you own. Using an email address that is on your domain helps establish trust, not only with your customers but with their email service providers, too. Some email accounts will block generic email addresses that they’ve never seen before, or automatically filter them into junk mail. \nA business email address looks more professional and is generally easier to remember. Plus, it allows you to promote your brand with every message that you send. \nHow to create a professional business email account\nNow, let’s talk about how you can actually accomplish getting a business email account. \nStep 1: Get a domain for your business\nFirst, you need to have a domain. The good news is, if you have a website, you likely already have your domain! If your website is hosted on a free platform that doesn’t provide you with a domain, then you’ll need to purchase one (and we highly recommend putting your website on your own, purchased domain). \nThere are tons of domain registrars out there to purchase from; GoDaddy.com, BlueHost.com, Domains.Google, and Zoho.com are a good place to start. Just find a domain that fits well with your business (but keep it short and memorable) and make the purchase. \nIf you already have a domain, make sure you know where it is hosted and can get logged into the account. If you don’t know that information, talk to your website developer or ask the customer service department of your domain hosting service provider. \nStep 2: Choose an email service provider and create your email address\nOnce you have your domain, you’ll need to choose a place to host your email. Your domain registrar likely has an email hosting plan that you can sign up for. These are usually a couple dollars a month per email box that you need. \nCommon email service providers that businesses use include G-Suite (now called Google Workplace) and Microsoft Outlook. These are both more advanced business plans that cost a little more, but do have additional features like calendars, chat, file sharing, and more. \nIf you’re looking for the easiest and cheapest way to set up a business email account, go with your domain registrar. \nWhen you have chosen your email service provider, you can create the email address that you want to use. Keep it simple and easy to remember, and keep a consistency across your company’s email addresses. For example, if you have an email for every employee, choose a consistent format like [firstname]@[yourdomain].com or [firstinitial.lastname]@[yourdomain].com\nStep 3: Set up your email\nNow that you have a domain and your preferred email service provider, it’s time to set up your email so that you can actually send and receive mail. We can’t go through the setup of every email service provider out there, but the main steps are generally the same. \nIf you are using your domain registrar to host your email, just log in to your account to set up your email. There will generally be a section under your account that says “manage email.” With some of them you may need to purchase your email hosting first, so choose the email plan that you want, make the purchase, and then follow the prompts from your registrar to finish the setup. \nIf you are using a service that is separate from your domain registrar, you’ll need to set up the MX records to direct your mail to your email service provider’s servers. Mail Exchange (MX) records are codes or identification records that your domain registrar uses to specify the mail server that hosts your email. \nMost domain hosts will have step-by-step MX setup instructions that you can use. \nHere are some generic steps for finding those records and making the change:\nSign in to your account on your domain host’s site\nFind the section where you can update your MX records—it might say “Mail Settings,” “DNS Management,” or “Advanced Settings”\nDelete any existing MX records (you’ll be adding new ones)\nAdd new MX records for your email service provider (find these in your account for your email service provider)\nTest your email to see if it works\nNote: Sometimes it can take 24-48 hours for your DNS (Domain Name System) to reflect this new change. \nIf you are having trouble finding the settings that you need to set up your email account, talk to your IT team or your web developer. \nBest practices for setting up your business email account\nOnce your business email account is created, there are a few other things that you need to be aware of in order to have the best experience and ensure that your customers receive your emails. \nDon’t spam your customers\nIf your customers have signed up to receive emails from you or you have their email address from your numerous communications with them, respect that. Don’t spam your customers with constant messages that they are unlikely to read. That might just ensure that they miss the more important emails that you send their way. \nAvoid getting your email blacklisted\nAs you start creating email campaigns and engaging in email marketing with your new professional email address, there are some important steps you need to take to avoid getting your email blacklisted (meaning blocked or going straight to spam). \nDon’t buy email lists. It’s important that you get permission from people you send emails to (like through a sign up form), and people on email lists generally didn’t give their consent\nCraft engaging emails. Low engagement rates can cause emails to bounce or go to spam if the receivers aren’t opening the messages\nDon’t use click-bait subject lines (at least not if they aren’t accurate to the message of the email)\nInclude an unsubscribe link so customers have the option to opt out of your email campaigns\nHave customers/subscribers whitelist your email\nSome email services automatically block new emails that aren’t included in a list of safe senders or that they’ve never seen before. If your customers or subscribers whitelist your email, that will help ensure that they receive communications from you. \nUse a spam testing tool\nThere are a few email spam testing tools out there that you can use to score your email campaigns. These will tell you how spammy your emails are and how you can fix that. A couple of good ones to start with are Litmus and Mail-Tester. \nAdditional resources for email marketing\nIf you plan to do any email marketing, you should always do so from a business email address. Once you have that set up, you might find this article helpful in your marketing efforts:\n\nTop 10 best practices for small business email marketing\n\n

How to create a business email account (and important tips)

In this article:\nHow-to guide for claiming your Nextdoor business page\nNextdoor is a social networking service for neighborhoods where users can exchange information about local goods and services and share other useful tips for their area. Businesses can join in their neighborhood network by getting listed on the website for their location. \nLocal business listings on website directories like Nextdoor help businesses improve their online reputation and create more opportunities to gain new leads. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step process of adding your business to Nextdoor.\nHow to add your business to Nextdoor\nTo get started, you can go to business.nextdoor.com. \nStep 1: Create an account and search for your business\nThe first step to adding your business to any online directory is to see if your business already has one. Sometimes businesses get automatically added to directories when they’ve been around for awhile, and you never know if a previous marketer or owner of the business set up a listing before you did. \nThis first step helps to ensure that you don’t create a duplicate listing (which can cause confusion for users and the search engines). \nTo search for your business on Nextdoor, you’ll need to go to business.nextdoor.com and click either “Sign Up Free” or “Claim Your Free Business Page.” Each of these options will take you through the same process if you don’t already have a business account on Next door. \n(Image)\n\nSelect the business type that describes your business best. Most will probably fall under professional business, but if you’re an independent contractor you might select neighbor for hire. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Sign Up” on the next page and then follow the prompts to create your account. Add your first and last name, email, and password. \n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nOnce your account is created, you’ll be brought to the page where you can search for your business. Enter your business name and address into the form and click “Search.”\n(Image)\n\nNextdoor might then list out several businesses that could be yours. If you do see your business listed, click it and proceed to Step 3 to claim your listing. If you don’t see your business, click “Create a new business page with this name” at the bottom of that window.\n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Create your business page on Nextdoor\nOn the next page, you’ll need to confirm your business address and click “Continue.”\n(Image)\n\nThen, add your business’s contact information, including email, phone number, and website. \n(Image)\n\nLastly, select the category for your business and then click “Create a new business page.” You can add more than one category here too. \n(Image)\n\nAfter you click create, Nextdoor will prompt you with the option to Start for Free or See Pricing for their premium plans. For your basic listing, just click “Start for Free.” You can always opt for their premium plans later if you feel this platform will help your business get leads. \n(Image)\n\nStep 3: Claim your business listing on Nextdoor\nNow that your business listing is created, you can claim it to make sure you have ownership of it and can lock out other people from making edits to your business page. \nIf your business was already listed when you searched for it, click on your business and follow the prompting to claim it. You’ll need to have Nextdoor text or call your business phone. They wil then provide you with a code that you have to enter on the next page that appears. Enter your code and click submit, and your business will be claimed. \n(Image)\n\nIf you just created a new listing, your business is automatically claimed. Congratulations!\nStep 4: Fill out your listing page\nOnce you’ve claimed or created your business, you’ll be taken to your Nextdoor dashboard for the listing. \n(Image)\n\nFrom here, go to “Your Page” in the left menu and start filling out your business page. \nAdd a logo and cover photo, your business information, additional categories, your story, and more photos if you have them. The more information you can include, the more helpful the listing will be in guiding potential customers your way and in helping with your local search engine rankings. \n(Image)\n\n
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\n(Image)\n\nLooking for other free listings that you can create for your business? Check out our guide: \n25 free business listing websites for small or local businesses\n   \nAfter you’ve created a business listing in an online directory it’s easy to leave it be and forget that it exists, especially if it’s one that you don’t need to actively manage for leads. However, it's important that you regularly monitor your online listings and make sure to keep them current, especially if it's a platform that allows reviews from customers.

How to claim your listing on Nextdoor (step-by-step walkthrough!)

In this article:\nWhy list your business on Foursquare\nHow to create and claim your business listing on Foursquare\nWhat to do next\nFoursquare is used by more than 50 million people each month. Consumers join Foursquare to find the best local businesses and share what they love about their favorites. \nStill not sure how Foursquare can help your business? Read on to learn how you can help improve your online visibility by listing your business on Foursquare.  \nWhy should you list your business on Foursquare?\nFirst, we just want to express how important it is that you list your business across multiple online directory sites. These directory listings, also known as citations, help search engines verify your business information from a bunch of trustworthy sources. \nThe more directories you have your business listed on (with the correct information), the better opportunity your business has to rank well in the local search engine results. \nGo deeper: \n15 free tips for better local search rankings\nFoursquare is a popular directory site that you should list your business on, not only for potentially better search engine results, but for the other benefits that it can offer your business. \nBenefits of Foursquare for your business:\nFoursquare users love sharing information about their favorite businesses, from tips for other customers to reviews that promote what they love\nYou can send offers and promotions through Foursquare\nYou have the ability to track customers’ behavior and give them rewards for engaging with your listing on Foursquare\nFoursquare turns its platform into a game by rewarding users with badges or naming them the “mayor” of a hot spot for engaging with different businesses\nFoursquare syncs with other social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook\nHow to create or claim your business account on Foursquare\nGet started on creating and claiming your business profile on Foursquare with this step-by-step guide.\n1. Create a Foursquare user account\nThe very first thing you’ll need to do is create a user account on Foursquare. Go to the \nFoursquare City Guide login page\n and click “Sign Up.”\nCreate a new user with at least your email, first name, birthday, password, and gender, and click “Sign up.” Or sign up with Facebook or Google.\n(Image)\n\nOnce you’ve completed the signup process, proceed to the next steps. \n2. Check to see if you already have a Foursquare listing\nDirectory sites like Foursquare often collect data from other sources and could already have your business information listed on their website. Before you create a Foursquare listing for your business, it’s important to check if your business is already listed so you don’t end up with two potentially conflicting listings on the same platform. \nGo to \nbusiness.foursquare.com\n to search for your business on Foursquare. Type in your business name (or previous names if you’ve ever gone through a name change) and the city where your business is located.\n(Image)\n\nWhen you click “Search,” Foursquare will show you whether or not your business is listed. If they did find your business, you’ll see a screen like the one below. You can then click “Claim My Business” to get access to your listing. If the business displayed isn’t yours, then select “Not your business? Click here.”\nIf the business listed is not yours, then do another search with a variation of your business name, and if it’s still not there, that means you can start fresh and create a new listing. \n(Image)\n\nIf the business displayed is your business, after you click “Claim My Business” Foursquare will take you through a three-step verification process.\n3. Claim your business on Foursquare\nFirst, you need to check that you are the owner or working on behalf of the owner to claim the listing. Check this box, then click “Get Started.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, you’ll need to validate ownership by entering your business phone number. Foursquare will use this number to verify that you are a real person who is connected with the business. \n(Image)\n\nThe last step of the verification process is to pay $20 to get immediate access to your business profile. \nPlease note:\n Foursquare allows you to list your business for free (see #4 below), and if you’ve been in business a while it’s likely you already have a listing created by customers or by Foursquare importing data from other platforms. However, if you want full control of your listing you need to “claim” your business, which Foursquare currently charges $20 for. This is optional, but once you’ve done this, you will have full access to edit your listing, add photos, update your info, add links to your social media pages, and use Foursquare’s marketing and customer management tools for your business. \n(Image)\n\n4. Create a new listing\nIf your business is \nnot\n on Foursquare, then go to \nbusiness.foursquare.com\n to get started on creating your listing. Log in to your account and click “Get started now.”\n(Image)\n\nFoursquare will take you to another page to search for your business once more. They just want to make sure you don’t create two listings. Enter your business name and city and hit “Search.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nWhen your business doesn’t show up, you’ll be given the option to add your business. Click “here” to get started and you’ll be taken to a page like the image below. \nEnter all of the required information. Even though it doesn’t require you to add your address or phone number, these are important items of information to add if you have a physical storefront where customers can reach you. And you will need to select a pin on the map for your location. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Save” and, if you wish, go back to step 3 of this section to complete the “Claim your business” instructions. These are the same whether you are claiming an existing listing or creating a new listing.  \nWhat next?\nNow that you’ve created and/or claimed your business listing on Foursquare, what’s next? As we mentioned previously, it’s important to list your business across as many online directories as possible. \nCheck out this list of \n25 free listings sites for small businesses\n. This will help you improve your online visibility and rank better in local search engine results. \nMake sure to keep track of your listings and reviews on all appropriate sites, and work to earn fresh reviews.

How to list or claim your business profile on Foursquare

In this article:\nWhy use Google Ads/Adwords\nHow to set up your Google Ads search campaign\nHow to view your ad results\nAdditional steps for digital marketing\nGoogle Ads can be a great resource to keep in your tool belt of digital marketing strategies, even for solopreneurs, microbusinesses, sole proprietors, freelancers, and other one-person businesses. It helps you show up at the top of Google’s relevant search results almost immediately. \nWe’ll walk you through the best cases to use Google Ads for your small business and how to get your campaign set up. \nWhy use Google Ads for your small business\nGoogle Ads can work in a variety of ways for your small business. You can create shopping ads that display products from your site, image display ads that show up across other websites, and search ads that show up in Google’s search results. \nWe’re going to focus on \nsearch ads\n for this article, and here are a few reasons why you might want to use search ads for your business. \nSearch ads are a great short-term strategy for showing up in the search engines. Almost as soon as you start your ad campaign, your website is shown at the top of the search results. \nGoogle Ads can be a good solution for displaying limited-time promotions when it doesn’t make sense to do a long-term SEO campaign for them. \nGoogle Ads can help boost your online traffic/sales and drive customer conversions through the roof when optimized well. \nGoogle Ads is constantly learning from users’ interactions with your ads and adapts how it displays your ads to increase conversions. \nIf you need a good short-term strategy to start driving traffic to your website before your SEO campaign kicks in, or you just want to start seeing more sales on your website, follow the guide below to set up your Google Ads search campaign. \nHow to set up your Google Ads search campaign\nLet’s get started. \nStep 1: Create a Google account and log in to Google Ads\nFirst, you need to have a Google account to log in to Google Ads. If you already have a Gmail, then this step is done!\nUsing a business Google account for your Google Ads campaign is smart because it allows any data associated with the campaign to stay with the business for future owners, managers, or marketers to use for other campaigns. \nGo to \nads.google.com\n and click “Sign in” to log in with your Gmail. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you log in, select “New Google Ads Account.” \n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Create a new Google Ads campaign\nNext, you’ll be brought to a screen to start setting up a new campaign for your new Google Ads account. We advise you to look to the bottom of this page and click “Switch to Expert Mode.”\nThis will allow you more capabilities to optimize your campaign and maximize your conversions. You may not be a professional marketer, but we are, and we’re going to walk you through it. \n(Image)\n\nNext, select the type of campaign you want to run. For this specific guide, we’re walking you through setting up your search campaign. So, select “Search.” \n(Image)\n\nChoose a goal\nThen, choose the goal that applies the most to your Google Ads campaign. \n(Image)\n\nYou’ll be given the option to select the ways you want to reach your campaign goal. Select all that apply from the following:\nWebsite visits\nPhone calls\nStore visits\nApp downloads\nThen provide the information such as website, phone number, address, and app info so that Google can help you track the activity on your ads. Click “Continue.”\n(Image)\n\nName your campaign\nUnder “General settings” enter your campaign name. You can also select “Show more settings” to display a dropdown menu that allows you to enter a start and end date for your campaign. If you want to run your ad continuously, just disregard this section. \n(Image)\n\nUpdate targeting and audiences\nScroll down the page to narrow down your targeting and audiences. If you are trying to get nationwide leads or traffic, then you can leave “United States” checked. \nBut if your business is local, you’ll want to check “Enter another location” and enter specific cities or regions to display your ads to. \nClick “Advanced search” if you’d like to add locations in bulk or add a radius to your location target. \n(Image)\n\nBy clicking “Pin Mode” you can even drop a pin to be at the center of your radius rather than choosing an address or city. Click “Save.”\n(Image)\n\nPro tip: Under Locations, click “Location options.” Check the item under “Target” that says “People in or regularly in your targeted locations.” This will keep your ads from showing up for people in other countries or states who are simply “interested in” your targeted locations and not actually in them.\n(Image)\n\nNext, select your languages and audiences. Type in any other languages that are applicable to your campaign. \nIf this is your first campaign, then you won’t have any audience options, so you can move past this. But if you’ve created other campaigns, you can select an audience from one of those to add to this campaign. \n(Image)\n\nAdd your budget\nNow, you can add your budget for this specific ad campaign. You have to add a daily limit to your campaign. We just like to take how much we’re willing to spend monthly and divide it by 30 to get a rough estimate for your daily limit. \nGoogle will use this as a guide for displaying your ads each day, and once it reaches your daily limit, your ads will stop showing until the next day. \nThere is no general recommended budgets for a Google Ads campaign, as this can vary greatly between campaigns depending on your industry and goals. You may have to experiment with this to find your sweet spot for getting the most conversions and return on your investment. \n(Image)\n\nUnder “Bidding,” you’ll only have the option to choose “Clicks” or “Impressions” for your bidding strategy until your campaign has made some conversions. \nWe recommend starting with “Clicks” and then switching to “Conversions” after your ads have been running for a little while. \n(Image)\n\nInclude ad extensions\nAd extensions are additional links and pieces of information that you can include on your search ads. They are great to include not only because they offer more information for potential customers, but they also make your ad take up more space in the search results–making them more visible and appealing to click on. \n(Image)\n\nFor a sitelink extension, click “New Sitelink Extension” and fill in the fields provided:\nSitelink text (i.e. About Us, Products, Videos, Fun Features, etc.)\nDescription line 1\nDescription line 2\nFinal URL (where the sitelink points to on your website)\nSitelink extensions are great for highlighting other relevant pages on your website. \n(Image)\n\nCallout extensions are perfect for advertising additional reasons that customers should choose you, like Free Shipping, Hand-Crafted, Pain-Free, Low Cost, etc. Pick some unique attributes about your business and enter them here. \nClick “New Callout Extension” and enter at least two callouts. Click “Save.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nCall extensions allow you to enter your phone number to your ads. Customers can then call you directly without even clicking on your ad (win-win since it costs you money for each click you receive). \nClick “New Call Extension” and add your phone number. Click “Save.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nClick “Save and continue” to move on to creating your ads. \nStep 3: Set up Google ad groups\nNext, we’ll set up ad groups. These are a good way to organize your ads if they fall under different categories and will require different types of search phrases. \nFor example, if you want to use Google Ads to promote a new shoe sale and a grand opening for another location of your store, you’d want to set these ads up in different ad groups so you can target them differently. \nLeave the “Ad group type” set as “Standard.” Name your ad group(s) and add any relevant keywords for your phrases. We recommend only starting out with 10-15 highly relevant phrases with the “quotation marks” around them. \nSee our example in the photo. \nThe quotation marks around your keywords will tell Google that you only want your ads to show up for searches that include that phrase. The ads may be displayed to other searches that are very similar. This will help weed out unqualified traffic. \nThe more keywords you enter, the more unqualified traffic and clicks you might drive, meaning you’re paying more than you need to. You can always add more keywords later if you aren’t getting the results that you want. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Save and continue.”\nStep 4: Create your Google ads\nNow for the fun part–setting up your ads. This is what people will actually see on Google when your ads are displayed. \nWe recommend creating 2-3 ads to start with. This will give Google multiple options to display, and then you can see which ads perform the best. \nInclude the following in your ad:\nWebsite URL\nThree headlines (make these attention-grabbing and relevant)\nTwo descriptions (include keywords and additional details about your ad)\n(Image)\n\nClick “Done” to save your ad. \nClick “New Ad” above the ad creation section to create more ads for Google to choose from. \n(Image)\n\nOnce you have created 2-3 ads, click “Save and continue” at the bottom of the page. \nStep 5: Add your billing information\nYou can’t start running your ads until you have a way to pay for them. On this final step of the campaign set up, add your billing information into the fields provided:\nPromotional code (if applicable)\nAccount type (business or individual)\nBusiness name\nBank account or credit card\nFor bank account, include name on account, account type, routing number, and account number\nFor credit card, include card number, expiration date, CVC, cardholder name, and zip code\nClick “Submit.”\n(Image)\n\nNow your ads are officially set up! It may take up to 48 hours (though usually less) for Google to review and approve your ads. Once that is done, they will start showing up in Google searches and you’ll start seeing results. \nHow to view your Google adwords search results\nOnce your ads are approved, Google will start showing them in searches that include your keywords. Then you can view the results from your ads, like how many impressions (searches they’ve showed up in) and clicks they have received. \nLog in to \nads.google.com\n with the same Gmail you used to set up your account. You’ll be brought to an overview or dashboard for your search campaign. \nYou can then view your results by Ad groups, Ads & extensions, or Keywords. In the left menu bar, click the option that you want to filter your results by. \n(Image)\n\nWhen you click one of these options, you’ll be shown the number of clicks your ads, ad groups, or specific keywords received, how many impressions they received, the cost per click, and the total cost for all of the clicks. \nYou can also filter by specific dates to see how your ads perform week to week or month to month. You can even click the “Columns” icon in the menu bar below the dates to add additional metrics into your view. \n(Image)\n\nNow, just sit back and watch as your ads start bringing in traffic. \nWhat can you do in addition to Google Ads/Adwords search?\nGoogle Ads is a fantastic strategy for getting immediate traffic and short-term results. But it can be an expensive strategy to maintain for a long period of time. \nIf you want to start showing up in the search engines organically, you should compliment your Google Ads strategy with a long-term search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. SEO takes time, but it helps you show up in search engine results without having to pay for ads forever. \nHere are a couple guides that can help you improve your SEO:\nLocal SEO: 15 free tips for better search rankings\n\n25 free business listing websites every small or local business should be on\n\n

How to set up a Google Ads search campaign for your small business

There’s a serious “entrepreneurial adjustment” when you go from employee to business owner, especially when it comes to hours. According to a \nGallup poll\n, 62% of U.S. small business owners work over 50 hours a week. As any founder or owner will tell you, the hours can be long, chaotic, and irregular.\nSo where do you draw the line? What hours should you work? How do you draw boundaries for yourself? You need time with family, time to unwind, get away, and focus on other good things outside of your “baby.”\nLet’s break it down to this: when should your business be open? In other words, is 9 am to 5 pm enough? Or is it too much?\nWhat about your customers who work 9 to 5? They might not have time to squeeze in a shopping stop on their lunch break or after work. If your store is only open during business hours, are you forcing people to take precious vacation hours to shop at your store?\nThere’s gotta be a better way.\nNo, it’s not just increasing your open hours. And, for Pete’s sake, we’re not saying to be open 24/7. Don’t take away from your freedom like that. (But, if you can make it work, and it makes financial sense to be open 24/7, go for it!)\nWe’re saying you can be strategic about when to retract the deadbolt and when to arm the alarm. To help you decide, here are six ways to know when your small business’s open sign should be glowing red.\nHere are 6 ways to determine when your small business should be open.\n1. Check your sales data to understand your best days and times of the week for sales\nLook at all your sales in the last quarter or year. Look at the days of the week. Any noticeable increases on say, Monday over Wednesday? Is Sunday afternoon dead? Take a look at what time your customers are buying. Notice any patterns? Is there a rush at the end of the day? Or the beginning of the day?\nIf you see a concentration of traffic butting up against a closing time or opening time, you might want to think about expanding the hour. On the other hand, if you see a repeatedly dead zone with no sales over the year(s), maybe you can afford to shave a few hours off the workweek for you and your staff.\n2. Survey your most loyal customers and collect feedback\nIf you didn’t see anything useful in your sales data, it’s time to get more direct. Go right to your customers and ask them. Use these as sample questions:\nWhat hours would you like us to be open that we’re currently not?\nWhat day(s) of the week are you most likely to stop by our store?\nWhat time of day are you most likely to come in and shop at our store?\nWhat other stops do you make on the day when you visit our shop?\nGathering the answers could provide actionable data for your decision-making framework. You might discover a significant opportunity to help more customers and generate more sales.\n3. Look at Google to see when your competitors are open… and when they’re busiest\nThis is more than just looking at the open hours of your competitors. Google is useful for much more than that. Here’s how.\nOpen a web browser (recommend Chrome) and google your competitor\nOn the righthand side, there’s a box with photos and information like phone number, address, website, etc.\nScroll down and find “Popular times”\nThis chart will show you a bar graph of your competitor’s busiest hours.\nIt will also tell you how much time people typically spend there.\nNow, compare this to your business. Are you open during these hours? Why or why not? Should you be?\n4. Look at seasonalities like events and weather to stay ahead of consumer behavior\nIf local events occur every year and cause an influx of traffic, or an outflux of residents, take advantage of these annual trends. Research the results of the years before and see which streets and areas experienced a surge of event-goers. Are they close to your shop? It might be worth it to stay open and attract the late-night concert crowd or open early to catch the hungry 5k runners in the morning.\nAlso, ask the other small business owners around you what their plan is for the event. The last thing you want is to be the only store closed on a popular street while every other shop is brimming with new tourists and passers-by.\nLastly, do you know if weather has an impact on foot traffic to your business? What’s the effect of snow, rain, and sunshine? You can help figure this out with tools like Weather.org’s \nweather history tool\n.\n5. Holidays: there’s no right answer, just make sure you clearly communicate your hours\nBased on our research, holiday hours are tricky. There are pros and cons any way you look at it. You could choose to be open during the holidays, and potentially keep your employees away from their families. Or you could decide to be closed and miss out on the increased foot traffic. How do you decide?\nThe factors that should inform your decision to stay open on say, Christmas Day, are too many to list for this single blog post. The best thing to do is make sure your customers aren’t upset by being overtly clear and communicative about when you are open and closed.\nShare your holiday hours on Facebook. Pin a tweet on Twitter.\nAdd a banner to the homepage of your website saying when you’ll be open and closed.\nChange the voice message on your answering machine.\nIf you have email subscribers, dispatch a holiday reminder email with your store hours.\nPost a legible notice on your store’s doors a week in advance of your holiday hours.\nBy clearly communicating your hours, you could be saving a desperate family member a dangerous drive through inclement weather only to find a locked door and dark storefront. Share the holiday cheer… and your holiday hours.\n6. Experiment. It might surprise you and pay off\nPerhaps the most effective way to determine when your small business should be open is trying different hours and measuring the return on investment.\nYou could try setting up two types of experiments like this:\nWhen are the slowest times of the week? Or of the season?\n Close the store and put a note with instructions for the turned-away customer to let you know they tried to shop but couldn’t.\nWhen are you busiest? \nTry staying open later, or opening sooner, and see what happens. Does new business come in and make it worth it?\nYou might learn valuable lessons that help you attract more customers and optimize staff hours. In the end, how many hours you work is up to you. By using these 6 methodologies to help determine when your local small business should be open or closed, you’ll find what works best for you and spend your time in the most economical and enjoyable way.

How to decide when you should be open for business

In this article:\nHow your small business can benefit from a YouTube presence\nHow to set up a YouTube account for your small business\nEnhance your marketing efforts with other social media outlets\nYouTube is a great resource and social media channel for small businesses to utilize, particularly if your business is visual by nature or you have a big personality. \nHowever, even plumbers, landscapers, decorators, pet groomers—pretty much any type of business you can think of—have developed huge followings and marketing reach on YouTube\nIf your business doesn’t have a YouTube channel yet, we’ll show you how to create one, as well as give you some pointers for how a YouTube account can benefit your small business.\nWhy your small business should be on YouTube\nConsumers are highly engaged by visual media—memes, photography, infographics, and video. YouTube is also the 3rd-largest \nsearch engine\n and the 3rd most visited site on a global scale with more than 1 billion visitors each month. \nIf that’s not reason enough to help increase some brand awareness by using this channel, here are a few additional benefits your business can gain by using YouTube as a marketing tool:\nYouTube videos can help your business get found on Google through video search\nYour content can last longer as you repurpose blog posts into videos that you can share on YouTube\nYour audience will promote you as they share your videos\nIncrease customer conversions with video\nTarget video ads through Google Ads on YouTube\nAdd a face to your brand that people will recognize and connect with\nYouTube can add transcripts and captions to videos to make them more accessible\nIf you are already producing video content for your business, then take advantage of the many benefits of YouTube and set up an account. We’ll show you how in the next section of this article. \nHow to set up a YouTube account for your small business\nLet’s get to it. \nStep 1: Set up a business Google account\nDo you have a Gmail that you’ve already set up for your business? That will be the first step to creating your YouTube account. If you already have a business Google account, skip to Step 2. \nYouTube is owned by Google, so you need to sign in with a Google account. We recommend creating a separate Google account for your business rather than signing in with a personal account. This will make it easier to share the account information with other employees as your business grows. \nGo to Google.com and click “Sign in” to set up a Google account. \n(Image)\n\nClick “Create account” and then select “To manage my business.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nAdd your first name, last name, username, and password. Then click “Next” and follow the prompts to finish setting up your account. \n(Image)\n\nStep 2: Create your YouTube channel\nNow go to YouTube.com. If you are already signed into your Google account, then YouTube will already be signed in for you. If you’re not signed in yet, just click “Sign in” in the top right corner and use your business Google account to sign in. \n(Image)\n\nOnce you are signed in, click on your profile avatar in the top right corner and go to “Create a channel.”\n(Image)\n\nClick “Get Started.”\n(Image)\n\nNext, you’ll be given the option to use your username for your new channel or use a custom name. For businesses and brands, we recommend using a custom name so you can brand your YouTube channel.\n(Image)\n\nAdd your channel name (your business name is fine here), check the “I understand…” box and click “Create.”\n(Image)\n\nOn the next screen you can and should add all of the following:\nProfile picture (your business logo is great for this)\nChannel description (what kind of videos will you be sharing?)\nLink to your website and other social profiles\nClick “Save and Continue.”\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nNow you have a YouTube channel for your business! Continue to Step 3 to further customize your channel. \nStep 3: Customize your YouTube channel\nWhile you can now upload videos and technically do have a YouTube channel for your business, you should customize your channel to fit with your branding. \nStart by clicking “Customize channel” on the new screen you are brought to. \n(Image)\n\nHere, you can add channel art (a banner photo), add featured channels that are relevant to your business, and add new sections to organize your videos. \n(Image)\n\nGo to the “About” section to edit your description, add a business email, and add your location. \n(Image)\n\nStep 4: Upload your first video\nNow all that’s left to do is start adding videos. Wherever you are on YouTube, you can always click the video camera icon in the top right corner to upload a new video to your business channel. Click “Upload video” and follow the prompts to get your video added. \n(Image)\n\nEnhance your marketing efforts with other social media outlets\nYouTube isn’t the only social media outlet that you should take advantage of. Learn the benefits that you can gain from other social media channels for your business and use those that best suit your needs. \nHere are a few guides to get you started:\nHow to create and claim your business’s Facebook page\nHow to create an Instagram account for your business\nHow to create a business Twitter account\n\nHow to create a business LinkedIn account\n
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210 articles found in “All”

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How to set up a Google Ads search campaign for your small business

How to decide when you should be open for business

How to set up a YouTube channel for your small business

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