The Interview Series: Spotlight on Daniella Shapiro

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Daniella Shapiro

Tell me a little about you and your company

Daniella Shapiro is a Disruptive Entrepreneur, Marketing & Branding Strategist, Social Media & PR Specialist and Speaker. 

Daniella Shapiro is the Founder and CEO of DaniellaShapiro.com, a Premier Marketing, Branding, Social Media Management, PR and Event Planning company dedicated to building products, services & brands for the future. 

Daniella has a BA Marketing Communication degree from the University of Johannesburg and an honours degree in brand leadership from Vega College.

Prioritize Your Launch Projects with a Launch Plan

Prioritize Your Launch Projects with a Launch Plan

When you are launching a new business, or even a new product, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the details involved with a marketing launch. If you create and follow a launch plan, you will be able to record your internal goals, requirements, and accomplishments. You will also ensure that you reach your potential customers with the right media placement and in other locations where they are active. I use the same marketing launch plan for nearly every project, and create separate plans for other aspects of the business, such as production and logistics.

Find the Right Media for Your Marketing Message

Find the Right Media for Your Marketing Message

Whether you're aiming for paid or earned media, you need to do your homework to determine whether a partner is the right fit for you and your company. When you choose a media outlet to pitch as part of your marketing efforts, do the research upfront to ensure they are the right fit for your products and services. When you research the publications or even blogs where you might want your portfolio to be featured, you can create a priority list of partners, and weed out those that are not a great fit for your brand.

When you start doing your research, determine who the readers are. If you have a strong, well-defined customer profile for your core customers, you can easily match up your customer profile to the reader profile of the media outlet that you want to target. 

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Sophia Treyger

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Sophia Treyger

Tell me a little about you and your company.

My Sex & Intimacy Coaching business was created as a storehouse of all the wisdom and experience I’ve gathered throughout my life becoming an empowered woman and guiding women to love and trust themselves. My company values women and their partners. I’m committed to helping women and couples experience genuine intimacy in order to feel connected and close. I’ve always been fascinated with relationships - how they are formed and maintained throughout life - and was naturally drawn to the workings of the human mind. I’m eternally curious about how we think and feel and how that affects behavior and beliefs. 

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Develop a Content Strategy for Your Marketing or Website Launch

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Develop a Content Strategy for Your Marketing or Website Launch

Planning content for your entire website during a launch or re-launch can seem daunting, but you can plan ahead to create great content that brings the right customers to your site and looks great in your social media, email marketing, and PR campaigns.

The first step to create quality content for your site is to research the keywords that are relevant for your business. You can research keywords in Google Adwords by searching for your business or product. 

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Set Goals and Create Business Projections

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Set Goals and Create Business Projections

As you roll out your new products and services to the market, it will be helpful to set goals and create business projections (also called forecasts) your business. Setting achievable, research-based goals and forecasts will help you to project your business growth and determine your business needs over time. I like to create annual and 3-year forecasts. Many companies find value in 5-year forecasts, and that may be a good idea for you as well. I believe that with a small business things can change very quickly, so if you do plan to create 5-year, and often even 3-year forecasts, you should also be prepared to adjust them up or down as your business evolves. When you set your goals and create your forecast, you can either use a top-down approach where you forecast total sales and then assign percentages to each element of your marketing mix, or you can use a bottom-up approach where you forecast each individual element and add up those numbers to get your total. Either method works well, but if you want to dig into the details of your marketing, bottom-up forecasting is great for that.

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Vegetarian Zen

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Vegetarian Zen

Tell me a little about you and your company.

Vickie and I actually have several current ventures, all under our limited liability company, Two Southpaws Enterprises (est. 2005).

We created Vegetarian Zen in March of 2013, shortly after we became vegetarians.  Our mission and vision: 

Vegetarian Zen is committed to providing informative and entertaining content, including recipes, tips, products, and services, to both current and aspiring vegetarians and vegans in an open and non-judgmental manner.

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What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

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What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization means helping search engines direct visitors to your site by using words that are relevant for your business and the search terms that users type into a search engine, like Bing or Google. These search terms are also called keywords.

Optimizing your site for search helps the search engines determine which keywords are most relevant for your website and your business. Search engines use many factors to help them return the best results for their customers. 

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The Art of Saying 'No'

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The Art of Saying 'No'

Throughout the course of doing business, you'll be faced with many difficult decisions and sometimes have to turn down opportunities, marketing, and even potential clients because they do not align with your business or your goals for your company. It's important that you learn how to say 'no' when it's appropriate for your business. It's also important to be gracious when making a rejection of any kind.

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Della's Apron

The Interview Series: Spotlight on Della's Apron

Tell us a little about you and your company.

Della’s Apron, LLC provides on-site training and technical assistance to early care and education providers. We also provide webinars, conference presentations family education workshops and instructional design services.  

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Create Your Niche

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Create Your Niche

A niche is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted."

A lot of people talk about finding a niche for your small business, but it can be difficult to do. Narrowing your business scope to deliver one great product or service line to one specific group of core customers can be scary.

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Take Time Away for a Stronger Business

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Take Time Away for a Stronger Business

My yoga studio sent me an email this morning about the importance of a re-boot. The email both resonated with and inspired me, so I decided to write a blog post about it this week.

I'm convinced that inspiration for your business can be found nearly anywhere, but you have to take the time to look around and find it. Often, we're so busy 'hustling' that we forget to stop for a second and smell the figurative (or literal) roses.

Conduct an Exit Survey

Conduct an Exit Survey

Inevitably, some customer contracts come to an end. Sometimes customers or clients are not the right fit for your brand, product, or service. The best thing to do for your brand is to find out why. I like to use a very simple, three-question exit survey for all of my Twined customers that cancel their subscription. We process cancellations one at a time and email the survey link in batches.

7 Great Business Podcasts to Check Out (That you might not have heard of)

7 Great Business Podcasts to Check Out (That you might not have heard of)

Podcasts are incredibly popular and it seems like everyone has one now. I'm constantly on the lookout for great new finds and these are some of my current favorites. I usually listen in the car, so bonus points awarded for any show that has great show notes for follow up. Feel free to comment with your suggestions. I would love to check them out, too!

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Identify Your Core Customers

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Identify Your Core Customers

Customers are at the heart of your business. Without them, you have no sales, which means you have nothing at all. Identifying your core customers will help you grow your business.

Your core customers are the base of your customer group and the people for whom you should write your marketing messages. Your core customers are the people who value your products and services most. 

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Why Does Content Matter in Digital Marketing?

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Why Does Content Matter in Digital Marketing?

Good content can help your website to become search engine optimization (SEO) friendly. Your content should reflect the products or services your business offers, articles or tips that are helpful to your audience, and information your customers use make a purchase decision.

Simply put, Google (and other search engines) aims to return the most helpful results for each search. Google wants each person conducting a search to find results that are helpful so that they go back to Google for their future searches. Each Google update changes their algorithm slightly to ensure that the best results are returned for each search.

Promoted Pins on Pinterest: A How-To Guide to Getting Started

Promoted Pins on Pinterest: A How-To Guide to Getting Started

Promoting pins on Pinterest can be very beneficial for your business, particularly if your product categories are already popular on Pinterest. Pinterest Ads are still fairly inexpensive compared to other online advertising. Pinterest users are among the most likely to make a purchase of all social media users since they are 'shopping' among the pins already. Pinterest users also spend about twice as much as Facebook and Twitter users. (Digiday)

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How to Name Your Business: A Step-By-Step Guide

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How to Name Your Business: A Step-By-Step Guide

Are you struggling to name your business or your brand? Do you want to pick the perfect name?

I have named hundreds of items between products, brands and companies (my own and others). Today, I use a basic formula that is easy to follow and helps me determine a name every time. It takes about a few days, but the time invested is worthwhile.

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What Is the Most Important Thing to Know When I Launch My Business?

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What Is the Most Important Thing to Know When I Launch My Business?

Perhaps as a marketer I am biased, but I think the most important thing to know when you are launching your business is your customer. Without a solid understanding of your customer, your business probably will not survive. With a good understanding of your customer, you can meet and even exceed their expectations at every touch point.

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How Do I Get Earned Media without Paying an Expensive PR firm?

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How Do I Get Earned Media without Paying an Expensive PR firm?

PR firms can be incredibly expensive. For a small business or an entrepreneur, PR can be prohibitively expensive. Fortunately, you do not always have to pay for media coverage. It's called earned media for a reason.

If you have a small budget and little to no time to spend earning media, a company like Publicize (Publicize.co) can help you out by reaching a large audience for a lot less than a traditional PR firm. If you have zero budget, but are willing to invest some time, you can earn your own media coverage.