University of La Verne SBDC Small Biz Blog

by Joshua Botello Digital marketing has been alluring for small business owners to leverage the technology that larger corporations have been using for the last few years. Many small business owners looking to jump into the foray without quite knowing what digital marketing is. Small business owners may not understand marketing as a whole, so if they want to migrate or expand into digital marketing it tends to become a technological mess. It usually means cleaning the slate and rebuilding effective marketing starting from scratch. In this article, we’ll cover the 4 Aspects of a digital marketing strategy to build digital dominance. What is Digital Marketing? Digital marketing is essentially traditional marketing in a digital space. With digital marketing, the idea is to leverage online platforms and properties like websites, blogs, social media, video, live streams, webinars, and email marketing. Many of the fundamental marketing principles such as goals, target markets, marketing chan

by Joshua Botello At first glance, Twitter may seem like a neverending wall of noise, but if you are serious about using Twitter as a marketing channel, then you need to know how to properly set up your account. So let’s get into a step-by-step guide for starting your business on Twitter. And stay till the end for pro tips to leverage Twitter for your business Set up  First, head to twitter.com and click sign up to get your account started. Type in your Twitter username called a handle then your email and your own birthdate even for business. Now that your account is created you need to build out your brand on Twitter.  To do this, you need to add a bio that explains your business, A profile picture, this can be a logo or other brand image, and finally a header photo of your location or other scenic picture. How To Use Twitter Now that you have all that done let me show you how Twitter works. Posts on Twitter are called tweets and have a limit of 280 characters. These can be text, phot

by Joshua Botello If you avoided using Twitter for your business up until now, let's start with some numbers: There are 48.35 million monthly active Twitter users in the US. 38% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18 and 29, 26% of users are 30-49 years old. 56% of Twitter users $50,000 and more in a year. 80% of Twitter users are affluent millennials. If you haven't started using Twitter because it is just a “never-ending wall of noise” and you don’t “get it”. Fear not. Here are 10 ways you can easily use Twitter for your business. #1 Promote Your Blog If you aren't blogging for your business. You should consider starting immediately. If you are, congratulations, it's time to amp that up on Twitter. You can promote your blog with several strategic tweets that are scheduled out to give your blog the maximum traction it needs. How? You can schedule out 5 tweets in this example from Neil Patel , to get eyes on your blog and keep it fresh witho

by Joshua Botello Are you looking to build an audience on Facebook for your business? Whether you have been in business for years or you are just starting out, figuring out how to use social media to grow your business is going to be a challenge. So here is a list of 4 tips you can use to build your following on Facebook.  Tip #1 Contact Existing Customers Tip number 1 is to Contact your existing customers: If you're currently and have existing customers who are also on Facebook, you want to let them know once you join. You can do this a few different ways by putting a Facebook like button on your website that connects to your business page so they know they can connect with you there.  If you have an existing email list let them know you are on Facebook and have a follow button in the email as an easy call to action to click.  If you have a brick and mortar location, post your Facebook page name somewhere visible for the customer to follow you and get all the latest information. Y

By Joshua Botello The world of grants is a hazy one, especially for the uninitiated. To outsiders, grants seem to be free money floating around that people are willing to just hand over and are ridiculously easy to get, but difficult to find (unless you know where to look). If by some miracle, one of those previous statements might actually be true (uh, no), the world of grants and business financing is confusing and difficult. There is a lot of information and misinformation in the world, so let's dispel the myths and uncover the truth about grants. But first... What exactly is a Grant? A grant is one of many forms of federal, state, county, city, corporate, or foundation funding. Within the federal government (the largest grant funder), Federal financial assistance is a broad term for the various ways the U.S. government distributes resources to eligible recipients. Simply put, a grant is any money that funds ideas and projects to provide public services and/or stimulate the ec

by Joshua Botello If you are looking to start digital marketing, a Facebook account is a good start to reach your customers, with over a billion active users. If you need to run a business from your Facebook account, track who views your page, and make sales with Ads you need to invest in a Facebook Business Page. A Facebook Page is a free and easy way to gather analytics on your audience, Schedule and post content, and use advertisements. So let hop on to Facebook and start-up that business page. The Set-up We’ll naturally start on Google.com. We need to make sure that we are logged into our Facebook profile so let's go to Facebook.com. We will type in our Facebook profile login and password. Verify you are logged in to our Facebook profile and then open a new tab. Now it’s time to open your Business page. On your profile, in the 2020 interface will be these buttons. Click the plus button and choose the page. it will bring up a page with a sidebar that looks like a profile. The f

by Joshua Botello Non-profits are some of the noblest organizations to help communities all over the United States. The National Council of Nonprofits describes nonprofits this way: “America’s 1.3 million charitable nonprofits feed, heal, shelter, educate, inspire, enlighten, and nurture people of every age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status, from coast to coast, border to border, and beyond... They foster civic engagement and leadership, drive economic growth, and strengthen the fabric of our communities. Every single day.” While some look to build a business others look to starting a nonprofit organization to make a living, by helping the community. Here is a list of the major differences between for-profit companies and nonprofits, if you are looking to start a nonprofit of your own. Profits The biggest myth with non-profit organizations is that unlike for-profit companies that can’t make a profit. The term non-profit is somewhat of a misnomer. Non-profit organizatio

By Joshua Botello Social media marketing has become the ubiquitous first step for business owners to take in digital marketing. It’s easy to start, free and most already know how to use the platforms. However, new business owners who are not well versed in marketing fundamentals forget the basic tenets of marketing for millions of users on each platform. These business owners think all users are potential customers and if they cast a wide net they will hopefully capture some of that business for themselves. In this article, we’ll cover 5 steps to getting started social media and how you can expand your business with digital marketing. Step 1# Know Your Customer One of the first basic tenets of marketing is to “know your customer”. If you have been in business for any length of time, you should know who your customers are. You may know them personally or you may be familiar enough with them because they buy often. Why does this matter? Well, many business owners are distracted by the in

by Joshua Botello One of the most consistently asked questions we get is: "How can I get more customers for my business?" Well, worry no more. We don't just have one way, we have 9 different ways to get more customers no matter your industry. Let's take a look at how you can build your customer base. 1. Rub Some Elbows If you need some new customers now, it might time to get out there and rub some elbows. This means networking and getting referrals. But where? Start with your local city Chamber of Commerce, they routinely have events and mixers multiple times per month, to get to know the local businesses. You can always attend these events as a guest to try them out or dive in and become a full-fledged member. You can also use LinkedIn or Facebook to join groups and network online and learn from other like-minded business owners. The other way is to tap some old or current customers and ask them for referrals. Start with the best customers first, as they will ha