Word of mouth is vital to any small local business that hopes to grow. For a fortunate few, it just happens naturally. But word of mouth can also be planned, executed and nurtured as a specific marketing method. Attending to the basics is important. Word of mouth comes from having happy customers, so that’s still Job #1.

Here are seven steps to getting your word of mouth (WOM) effort underway:

1. Target the talkers. Makes sense, right? It is word of mouth, after all, so you need to aim your efforts at the people who like to talk about the great products, services and businesses they use. They are your customers, of course.  Remember, these might  include people who have a recommendation when somebody asks them for one – even if they aren’t naturally talkative or write reviews.

2. Develop a pitch line that’s interesting and easy for people to share. The “interesting” part is vital. Avoid being boring at all costs. Who wants to share something boring? Ask yourself, honestly, why a customer would want to talk about you? Forget your brand statement or product brochure. Try not to think like a marketing person. This is consumer-to-consumer, so your story line should sound like one person telling another about something great they’ve discovered. Boil it down to one sentence. Maybe two.

3. Be amazing. There’s no way around this. If you want people to spread the word about you, you have to deliver something exceptional. So in addition to being interesting, you’ll need to deliver customer service that’s above-and-beyond – and make sure everyone who works for you does the same. Your products and packaging — including your store, office and website  — should look great. If you and your employees are excited and energized about what you do, it will spread to your customers.

4. Put it in motion. You already have lots of ways to do this. For example, your business profile, website, newsletter, brochure, emails and social media pages should include “tell-a-friend” forms or functions. Consider using postcard mailings, coupons, stickers, buttons and QR codes. When you make it easy for people to share, they are much more likely to do so.

5. Create continuous reasons to talk. You can create word of mouth opportunities with special sales, great new features or something fun, such as a contest or event. Think distinctive: Do something others aren’t. Establish a unique personality for your business that includes certain colors, shapes, a stand-out design or maybe even a mascot. These things make it easier for people to remember you.

6. Connect to the conversation. Having a presence online – specifically in social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ — is a great way to join and facilitate conversations about your business. The best and most simple thing you can do is simply ask questions. You’ll be surprised at how willing consumers are to provide feedback when they’re asked what they think. Ask some questions about your business and its products and services. But you can also ask broader questions to get more acquainted with your customers’ goals, needs and tastes. Posting comments on blogs or having your own blog can also help.

7. Show appreciation. This step too often gets overlooked. When you hear about someone who has recommended your business, say thanks. Send lots of thank you notes. Keep in mind that people like feeling like they are part of an “insider” group, so share information about things you may be planning or thinking about, and ask for feedback.  When you gain new clients, customers or prospects, ask them how they heard about you so you know whom to thank. Reply to emails, Facebook messages and blog comments as quickly as possible.  This will in turn generate even more WOM.

Daniel Kehrer is Founder of BizBest (www.bizbest.com), a free and independent information service for small business, and editor of ShopTalk: Social Media for local business (www.dexsocial.com). Twitter: @BizBest  © 2011 BizBest Media^®

With so much emphasis these days on search engine marketing and social media, email marketing gets overlooked.  But for millions of local businesses it represents a steady performer in the marketing mix.  Using email marketing effectively, however, can be challenging.  Here are 10 ways to make email marketing work harder for your business:

• Improve your appearance: Your “Subject” line is critical. This is what most recipients see first. They will use it to decide whether or not to open your email.  Subject lines of 30-50 characters are best and should convey a sense of urgency. Avoid words or phrases associated with spam such as “Free,”  “You may have already won” or “Don’t delete!” The “From” field is also important.  It’s usually best to use your business name (or your name if that’s more recognizable) so recipients know who’s sending it.
• Hone your message:  Craft your message so it appeals as specifically as possible to your intended audience.  Be clear about which audience you are addressing.  For example, are they current customers? Inactive customers? Prospects?  Different audiences have different likes, expectations and levels of knowledge about what your business offers.  Focus on one thing you want to accomplish.
• Respect recipients’ time: Email marketing involves a special relationship since recipients have given permission for you to send them emails (they’ve opted in somehow).  So treat them with special care. Offer them something of value – special deals, important news, insider access or VIP treatment of some kind – and never waste their time.
• Make it interesting:  If you’ve done the preliminaries right and recipients open your email, keep them engaged by making it interesting, as well as worth their while. Use a conversational style (avoid sounding like a commercial) and let your personality (or your brand’s personality) come through. Write like you are talking to a friend.
• Call to action: Just as with other marketing messages, emails need a strong call to action.  A strong CTA makes it clear what action the customer is expected to take, and why.
• Tap into testing:  One of the nice things about email marketing is that it’s so easy to test.  For example, you can easily try different subject lines and see what works best. You might be surprised at your findings. Craft several different main messages and see which ones result in the most “clicks” to your website. Try different offers and calls to action.
• Segment your list:  For many small businesses, segmenting spells success.  If you customers include different demographic groups (older, younger, men, women, etc.), try creating customized offers and messaging to different groups.  Segmenting will also reduce opt-outs since recipients get more targeted messages.
• Take it slow and steady:  The best email lists are often build slowly and methodically over time. Purchased lists can be of dubious quality and value.  Don’t worry if your list is small. Quality trumps quantity.
• Dial the right frequency: Because email marketing is relatively inexpensive it’s tempting to use frequently. But that can backfire. The best frequency and time of day to send your emails depend on the type of business you operate.  Finding the right formula is a learning process, so try sending emails at different intervals and times.  Also avoid large gaps in your frequency.  If customers haven’t heard from you in months, they may forget they opted in and consider your message spam.
• Win the browser battle: Email recipients use many different email programs and web browsers, including Outlook, Yahoo, Entourage, AOL, Apple, Gmail, Hotmail and others. A common mistake is failing to test emails to make sure they work properly with as many email programs as possible.  An easy way to do this is to use an email vendor for your marketing campaigns and take advantage of their testing tools.  A few options include Mail Chimp, Constant Contact, iContact and Vertical Response.

Daniel Kehrer is Founder of BizBest (www.bizbest.com), a free and independent information service for small business, and editor of ShopTalk: Social Media for local business (www.dexsocial.com). Twitter: @BizBest  © 2011 BizBest Media^®

Millions of small business owners and startup entrepreneurs are masters at creating great products and services, building awesome teams and winning over customers. Many of them, however, would probably flunk basic bookkeeping.

But if you – the business owner – don’t understand the different types of “accounts” your bookkeeper uses to organize your finances, measuring the success (or failure) of your efforts will be futile.  Being deft at digital marketing, for example, isn’t enough if you don’t have a clear financial picture of your business and run headlong into cash flow problems.

What do your accounts receivable look like? Are you constantly paying your own bills late? Not sweating the small stuff like understanding your own books is trouble in the making, says Lita Epstein, who designs online courses about reading financial reports and is the author of Bookkeeping Kit for Dummies (Wiley, 2012).

Here are basics of the 10 most common types of bookkeeping accounts for a small business that you should know:

• Cash. It doesn’t get more basic than this. All of your business transactions pass through the Cash account, which is so important that often bookkeepers actually use two journals -- Cash Receipts and Cash Disbursements -- to track the activity.
• Accounts Receivable. If your company sells products or services and doesn’t collect payment immediately you have “receivables” and you must track Accounts Receivable. This is money due from customers, and keeping it up to date is critical to be sure that you send timely and accurate bills or invoices.
• Inventory. Products you have in stock to sell are like money sitting on a shelf and must be carefully accounted for and tracked. The numbers you have in your books should be periodically tested by doing physical counts of inventory on hand.
• Accounts Payable. No one likes to send money out of the business.  But it’s a little less painful if you have a clear view of everything via your Accounts Payable.  Good bookkeeping helps assure timely payments and – importantly – that you don’t pay anyone twice.  Paying bills early can also qualify your business for discounts.
• Loans Payable. If you’ve borrowed money to buy equipment, vehicles, furniture or other items for your business, this is the account that tracks what’s owed and what’s due.
• Sales. The Sales account is where you track all incoming revenue from what you sell. Recording sales in a timely and accurate manner is critical to knowing where your business stands.
• Purchases.  The Purchases Account is where you track any raw materials or finished goods that you buy for your business. It’s a key component of calculating “Cost of Goods Sold” (COGS), which you subtract from Sales to find your company’s gross profit.
• Payroll Expenses. This is the biggest cost of all for many businesses. No matter how much you beg, few people want to work for nothing.  Keeping this account accurate and up to date is essential for meeting tax and other government reporting requirements. Shirking those responsibilities will put you in serious hot water.
• Owners’ Equity. This account has a nice ring to it. Basically, it tracks the amount each owner puts into the business. “Many small businesses are owned by one person or a group of partners; they’re not incorporated, so no stock shares exist to divide up ownership,” says Epstein. “Instead, money put into the business is tracked in Capital accounts, and any money taken out appears in Drawing accounts. In order to be fair to all owners, your books must carefully record all Owners’ Equity accounts.
• Retained Earnings. The Retained Earnings account tracks any of your company’s profits that are reinvested in the business and are not paid out to the owners. Retained earnings are cumulative, which means they appear as a running total of money that has been retained since the company started. Managing this account doesn’t take a lot of time and is important to investors and lenders who want to track how well the company has done over time.

Many business owners think of bookkeeping as an unwelcome chore.  But if you understand and make effective use of the data your bookkeeper collects, bookkeeping can be your best buddy, helping  you run your business more effectively.

Copyright © 2000-2012 BizBest® Media Corp.  All Rights Reserved.

Daniel Kehrer is Founder of BizBest (www.bizbest.com), an independent information service for small business and startups. © 2012 BizBest Media

• Online training can be an affordable alternative. Companies can save up to two-thirds of what classroom-based courses cost.

• More and more traditional training vendors are offering online courses. More choices means competitive rates.

• Students can ask tutors and instructors questions, and get a personalized response in minutes. In addition, many online training classes provide instant responses to quizzes—providing the employer quick results.

• Online courses are as easy as self-tutorials; they provide click-through instructions.

• Training content is flexible up until the very moment the student sits in front of the monitor. This makes altering content to address a new technology situation a snap.