Archives for September 2014

Going Viral

September 26, 2014 by Christine

This infographic in brought to you by Best Marketing Degrees, a resource guide for students who want to make a career in marketing. It has articles and graphic related to the latest development in marketing field.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: marketing, viral, viral solutions

How to Make Your Small Business Look and Feel Big

September 25, 2014 by Christine

Just because you're a small business on a limited budget doesn't mean you have to look like one.

There are plenty of ways that you can make your small business look and feel big so that you can impress potential customers and set yourself up for greater success.

Here are some tips on how to do exactly that:

Put a lot of effort into your website. Your website is the front door of your business, especially in an age where online marketing and sales are more important than ever before. Therefore, you shouldn’t pinch pennies when it comes to making an attractive, functional site. A clever, attractive, highly functional and engaging website is one of the best investments you can make as a young, small business.
Sell your products on your site. While a lot of businesses start by selling their products on Etsy or Amazon, you can instantly gain some credibility in the eyes of your customers by selling your products directly on your website. Add a sales portal and make sure it’s secured so that your web users will feel comfortable purchasing directly from you. This will also improve your sales margins, as you won't have to give up a cut to whoever’s hosting your business.
Have company email addresses. It just looks so much more professional to have email addresses for your business domain than to have everyone in your company use a free email address. You can also have multiple addresses for the various facets of your company (customer service, sales, media, etc.) and simply have them all go to the same two or three people while your company is still small.
Work with larger companies. Pair up with larger companies for various events, charities and more to get noticed by other people within your industry. Then, make sure that people know about it! Send out press releases about the partnership and make blog posts on your website.
Get media attention. Whenever you feel there’s something newsworthy about your business, send out press releases or reach out to local media sources to be featured in their publications. This kind of press can only help a small, growing business.

By getting into these types of habits early on, they will feel like routine by the time your company is actually a big one. Contact us today at Viral Solutions for more tips.
Copyright 2014 Viral Solutions LLC

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Watch out elephants! This slayer of business challenges comes with 30 years of record breaking sales, marketing, operations, training and leadership experience . He has worked face-to-face with 100’s of small business owners as well as large firms. His love of creating, communicating, developing and executing results for clients shines with each project, publication and training event. His entrepreneurial spirit, passion, industry experience, education, problem-solving prowess, charismatic personality and been-there-done that attitude leads his client focused approach.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: customers, small business, success, website

The Importance of Domain Names for Your Business

September 24, 2014 by Christine

At the outset of your business, you shouldn't just be thinking about the name of your business—you should be thinking about the name of your eventual website domain as well. Many new entrepreneurs don’t realize the importance of business domain names as it relates to search engine optimization and not being mistaken for other companies.

Here are some ways that you can choose the right domain name for your company to improve your chances of online success:

Choose the right domain extension. A domain extension is what comes at the very end of your URL. Common examples include .com, .org, .net and more. Most people agree that by far the best extension to use for your company is .com—for better or for worse, potential customers and investors see websites with .com extensions as being more credible. While you can settle for a .net if your preferred domain name isn’t available on a .com extension, you should never choose extensions like .info, .biz or other extremely cheap and obscure extensions.
Make it easy to remember. The name of your domain shouldn’t be too long, it should be easy to pronounce and it should be easy to spell. Remember: you need people to be able to remember your website after seeing it in advertisements, and you need to be able to improve your chances of having your site discovered. Strange spellings or pronunciations make that more difficult.
Put keywords in the domain name. One way to improve your search engine optimization with your domain name is to include keywords in the domain name itself. If you have a pet business, for example, it’d be a good idea to include something about pets or pet supplies in your domain name. You may even choose to include your geographical location to improve local search rankings.
Make it original. If you’re looking to use your domain as a branding opportunity, you may opt instead to use a catchier, more original domain name rather than a domain name made up of keywords. Be creative and figure out a way you can name your business and domain in a way that will build up the brand identity you want your customers to identify with.

For more tips as you choose your domain and begin building your website, contact us today at Viral Solutions.

Thomas von Ahn | Chief Elephant Slayer | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: seo

5 Steps to Develop Your Market Research Plan – Yes, You Can!

September 23, 2014 by Katie

Recently, we hit home on the importance of conducting Market Research. We discussed the what and the why. However, we didn’t get to the how.

Today, we’re going to briefly run through an easy to apply process of creating, starting, and monitoring a market research project. This process can be broken into five steps.

Identify the Problem. Here you need to sit back and be completely with honest with yourself, team, and organization. Depending on where you are within your business, it may even mean your business concept. You need to ask yourself what information that if you had would make a difference to your product or service awareness, retention, targeting, and acquisition.
Analysis of Key Issues within Problem. Next, you take the key problem(s) that you identified and you break it/them down in more detail. Paying particular attention to key issues that lead up to the
STRATEGIC PLANNING | This service digs deep into your processes, your systems and your strategy. We make sure you have defined, rigidly and systematically, your perfect prospective customer. This definition must strategic planning include the obvious demographics but more importantly the psycho-graphics. Then we test your willpower to prove that your approach, your tactics, your messages and your core offerings match what that perfect prospective customer is looking for. We require that you understand and can articulate your plan, your vision, your position statement effectively and with fire in your gut. With our strategic planning session your target customer will be redefined, your marketing tactics will no longer be in question, you will have a strong and decisive position statement, you'll know your strengths, admit to your weaknesses, relish in your accomplishments and learn from your mistakes.

main problem. Identifying the problem is the first step to understanding it. Understanding it is what is going to help you design a customized market research plan that fits the objective of investigating not only problem(s), but the issues associated with the problem.
Design the Research Plan. For example, if you’re trying to penetrate an international market that has an identified need for your product and there has been a long-standing awareness of your product, but your sales just aren’t there. You potentially could have a targeting or acquisition problem. Digging deeper will help you to evaluate the why, how, when, and so on that leads to the key issues that need to be explored and leads the way for your research design. Depending on the issues you may want to do to primary and secondary research. Simply put, primary research is research that you create yourself this could be surveys, focus groups, questionnaires, and so on. The bottomline with primary research is that you create, implement, and do all of it. Secondary research is research that is done by someone else. This could research studies, case studies, data and industry studies, and so on. Here, the research is done, and you review it. You’re going to have to decide your objectives, data collections, methodologies used to analyze data, scheduling key activities (i.e. creating survey instruments, permissions, recruiting participants, facilitation of surveys / focus groups / interviews, conducting research and analysis of secondary data, compilation of your primary data, review and analysis of primary data, protect data, evaluate limitations, and outcomes).

Do Something with the Findings. Your market research provides you with the opportunity to investigate the key issues to your major marketing problems. It does not, let me repeat, fix those problems. You fix those problems. By truly evaluating and understanding what you research means and how it could be applied within your situation is where not only money, but also the solutions lie for you key problems and issues. So, use this information to brainstorm, create objectives, goals statements, actions, metrics, and timelines for overcoming or at the very least minimizing your key problems and issues. Implement, track, monitor, and adjust accordingly.
Rinse & Repeat. Just like strategy sessions shouldn’t be a once or twice a year thing. Market research and staying up to date on trends, issues, and key aspects of your market, industries, and so on shouldn’t be. Business doesn’t stop, neither does market research. Fit ongoing, proactive market research practices within your overall business strategy.

We get it, market research can be overwhelming, however, if purposefully organized to fit the needs of working through key problem(s) and issue(s), it can be done. Take time to learn, do, and apply more practices to help you build your understanding, confidence, and application of market research practices. You’ll thank you, and so will people that are impacting by you solving or minimizing the impact of your key problem(s) and issue(s). You can do this. Start your learning today!

by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.

Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC

Katie Doseck, PhD | Chief Visionary & Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve. I catapulted my experience with extensive education, trainings, and personal coaching; earning a PhD in Organizational Management with a specialization in Human Resource Management, MBA in Organizational Leadership, and BA in Law & Liberal Arts. Subject Matter Expert (SME) areas: Human Resource Management, Employment Law, Organizational Change, Change Management, Resource Planning, Strategic Planning, Talent Management, Selling & Sales Management, Training & Development, Decision Making Models, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, and Motivation. Dr. Doseck is based out of Logan, Utah.

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: strategy

Market Research – Is It Really Worth It?

September 22, 2014 by Katie

You have this grand idea for a new product or service, and want to get the ball rolling with getting it to market. You feel that everyone could use or that the end user would be able to easily identify your product or service compared to competition. You don’t think there is any competition because you haven’t personally seen or experienced a similar product or service. You just want to get there first, and get there fast. A buddy asked “have you done any market research?” And you reply, “No because you know there is a need, which ultimately will create a demand”.

You my friend, are silly. Silly is a nice word for being outrageously reckless of your time, money, and resources to not even process the thought of conducting market research. The remainder of this article will hit home on what market research is, why it is essential, and provide you with easy steps to hire out or conduct your own research study.

Market Research. Is simply the process of understanding a market(s). The idea is that with analysis of industry, competition, and prospective customers, businesses get a better understanding of their

We Understand |The foundation of our success as a business is the relationships that we create with our clients. Everyone we work with says the same thing: we truly care about our clients and will do everything we can to help them find success in their operations. We have collected some testimonials on our website that should give you a better idea of what people are saying about Viral Solutions.

market(s). This understanding is pivotal to designing, implementing, and adjusting key strategic immersion, marketing, and sustainable practices to get noticed, create relationships, build sales, and run successful campaigns and businesses.

Why People Avoid It. It is boring. Let’s face it, if you didn’t think about finding the facts about the market first before creating the product or even after it was created, your passion is towards to the creation of the product, not understanding the end users or competition. Unless your professional expertise and/or education is research, you probably are not giddy about it. It also could be that reality check that would yield unfavorable results that you just don’t want to hear. It could also be the price tag of a research study that you have no clue how it will turn out. Who knows? The key is to ask yourself “why” and “why not” – you’ll find there are more pros to conducting research than cons, and if there are more cons on your list, perhaps you should reach out to a professional to aid you in unlocking your understanding of the process.

Why It Is Essential. It is the data that that drives strategy. Meaning it can make, break, or stagnate any type of market penetration, branding, or what-have-you. If you miss the boat on need, want, market, or your customer base your entire idea, product, service or organization is predisposed to a significant higher risk of failure.

Connecting the Dots. If you’re willing to throw thousands into launching a business without research of your market, market segments, demographics,

STRATEGIC PLANNING | This service digs deep into your processes, your systems and your strategy. We make sure you have defined, rigidly and systematically, your perfect prospective customer. This definition must strategic planning include the obvious demographics but more importantly the psycho-graphics. Then we test your willpower to prove that your approach, your tactics, your messages and your core offerings match what that perfect prospective customer is looking for. We require that you understand and can articulate your plan, your vision, your position statement effectively and with fire in your gut. With our strategic planning session your target customer will be redefined, your marketing tactics will no longer be in question, you will have a strong and decisive position statement, you'll know your strengths, admit to your weaknesses, relish in your accomplishments and learn from your mistakes.

psychographics, and positioning strategies, you’re wasting time, money, and resources. You can purposefully invest in a research study with a third party – this is a great idea if you haven’t the foggiest idea as to where to start. Bottom-line, look at your budget, determine the scope of your product or service, search for a reputable firm for a quote, and determine if you have the budget for the study. Do the study, use the study, and shape your strategy around tangible data, not winging it on feelings.

Finding a Market Research Partner. Search market research professionals in your area, online, or within a shared network community. Ask for referrals. Get quotes from at least 3 professional firms. Identifying their experience, research methodologies, time, and costs associated with your need. Review those quotes and details. Narrow down the firm. Interview again for clarification. Select, and get pumped to get data that can shape your market strategy. You, your marketing dollars, and customers will thank you for your market research investment.

Additional Great Reads…

Lusk, J. (2014). Marketing Research on a Budget. Huffington Post. Retrieved:

N.A. (2014). Conducting Market Research. Entrepreneur. Retrieved:

by Katie Doseck, Ph.D.

Chief Visionary and Strategic Ace Up Your Sleeve | Viral Solutions LLC

Filed Under: Analytics Tagged With: competition, viral solutions