small business

12 Days Of Tipmas Day 10: Look After Your People

MOMENTUM Business Support 12 Days Of Tipmas 2021
Six colleagues people putting their hands together as a team

Your Employees are the engine of your business; they are the main driving force behind the productivity and output of your company. With this in mind, it is crucial to look after your employees and keep their health, and therefore the company health, in great shape.

Employees who are happier and healthier tend to be more productive and more likely to recommend their company. Unhealthy and unengaged employees have a negative impact on the productivity, innovation, and the bottom line of your company.

Employees now expect more from their employers in terms of happiness and support than ever before. Physical and mental health are rising in importance – a study from Glassdoor showed that half of all employees prioritise physical and mental wellbeing benefits over office-based perks, and 87% of employees expect their employer to support their work/life balance.

So, what can be done to benefit Employees’ health and happiness?

  • Give your staff a sense of purpose – it’s very hard to get motivated if you feel that your work is meaningless, so providing something to work towards is important
  • Don’t force formality – breaking down the boss/worker hierarchy makes the atmosphere more relaxed and open
  • Praise your employees – be open about business performance and employee’s individual performance when they’re doing well
  • Go the extra mile – personalise gifts or experiences for employees to show you’re putting the effort in and that you care on an individual basis
  • Keep small team spirit – personal interactions and a small, close-knit team are great for making employees feel indispensable

If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of a happy team or any other business support, get in touch!

E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com   T: 01903 688789

12 Days Of Tipmas Day 6: Look For Grants, Loans And Other Subsidised Growth Support

MOMENTUM Business Support 12 Days Of Tipmas 2021
Man in suit passing over a pen and some paperwork to another person

Every business has found themselves needing a little extra support at one time or another and since running a business takes a lot of time and often money, it’s no surprise that many owners opt for grants and loans to help grow their brand. While it can seem daunting at first, there are many ways in which you can acquire additional financial support- most of which are common procedures.

While each type of growth support differs from the next, many are free or funded by the government while others work through repayment options or repayment with interest. Since only the lucky few have an expendable income at hand, here are some tips on finding the right support you:

  • Create a business plan
  • Visit Government websites
  • Speak with other business owners
  • Discuss financial options with your bank
  • Check your eligibilities
  • Research start-up and small business loans

If you’d like to find out more about grants, loans and other subsidised growth support, get in touch!

E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com T: 01903 688789.

Driving Traffic To Your Website

MOMENTUM Business Support Business Support, Digital Marketing
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Are you a new business looking for ways to attract visitors to your website? Or perhaps your website is simply no longer grabbing the attention like it used to. Not to worry! It won’t happen overnight but there are many things you can do to help your website drive traffic. While it’s good to cover all bases it’s important to start at the beginning and understand the basics, which is why we’ve divided the subject into three core structures.

Understanding SEO

SEO is the process designed to enhance the position of a web page from search results. SEO’s use bot crawlers, which work by indexing the website information found online. The information is automatically processed and categorised accordingly, displaying sites in an order of relevance established by the bot.

Many SEO-boosting strategies have been established over the years, however there is a staple checklist every business should follow:

  • Improve website speed- Statistics show that the speed of your website has a direct affect on how high your site ranks on a search engines page. The better your loading speed, the higher you climb on the main page. Make sure to optimise image formats, remove irrelevant 3rd party scripts, update site plugins, and perform general site maintenance on a regular basis. It can do wonders for speeding up a website.
  • Improve site visit duration- The amount of time spent on your website by existing visitors plays a major role in how much a search engine will ‘like’ your website and thus how well it will appear in search results. If your website is unattractive or too hard to navigate it can significantly lower the visit duration. Some good methods for boosting visit durations are embedding videos within your home page, including more interactive site features, and improving readability.
  • Improve your keywords- Keywords help to categorise your content and bring relevant traffic to your website. When used correctly, they improve visibility and suggest your website to target audiences searching within a pertinent field. Do your research and establish what type of client you would like to visit your site, your strategy, and the targeting keywords that will help to get them there.

Providing Quality Content

It may seem obvious to include content on the list of must haves, however the downfall of many websites is simply lack of quality content. No, we’re not just talking about the stuff that is permanently embedded in your website, we’re talking about fresh, regular, and quality content that can link back to your page. Whether it’s a weekly blog, a newsletter or podcast every piece of content you put out should have a link bringing the reader back to your site. The more site links lead back to you- the stronger the rankings of your website. Finally, don’t forget about video formatting! As mentioned earlier, embedding videos in your website can increase the duration of the site visit, but that’s not the only thing making them beneficial. Video format has statistically proven to have higher information retention than written format, which is why video marketing has become so successful among businesses. Don’t cut out written content completely but balance it out with other formats to provide alternative ways of tuning in!

Social Media Marketing

You most likely already have an account or two with the top social media platforms, but are you using them right? It’s not just as simple as posting every now and then. It’s important to keep the profiles alive, active, and regular and crack down the best places to reach your target audience. Becoming part of online communities, lists and pages can be a great way of gaining credibility as well as extending reach to preestablished and categorised groups. It also allows for interactions and gives you the opportunity to engage with your audiences.

There are many ways in which you can use social media to your advantage, from hashtagging to sharing content linking back to your page, it’s one of the best, free forms of advertising available. You don’t need to join them all but establishing where your audience hangs out online should give you a good idea as to where you too should be.

If you’d like to find out more about driving traffic to your website or would like to discuss outsourcing those tasks, get in touch. We would love to answer any of your questions and discuss your needs!

makeithappen.. E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com T: 01903 688789

1. What The Hell Is SEO? | In The Know Blog Series – Search Engine Optimization

MOMENTUM Business Support In The Know Blog Series
MBS Blog Series - SEO 1

Welcome to In The Know, our brand-new blog series! 

In each 6-part series, scattered throughout the year, we’ll be shedding light on topics you want to hear about as small business owners – highlighting the key points you need to know.

So, let’s begin! To kick off Series 1, we’re talking all things SEO, starting with what the hell it is…

What The Hell Is SEO?

If you have your own website for your business, you will have undoubtedly heard the term ‘SEO’ – but what does it actually mean?

SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation.’ Put simply, SEO is the process of improving your website and company visibility so that you can be found in relevant searches on internet search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo for example.

How Does It Work? 

When you use a Search Engine, your query (search phrase) is matched against their indexes (background data) to retrieve relevant web pages that correlate to what you’re looking for, once the results are displayed – they are ranked in order of relevance.

Ultimately, the better your SEO is, the better your search result visibility will be, which means the more likely you are to attract new prospects or existing customers back to your company. 

What Can You Do?

So, how do you ‘do SEO’? There’s no one perfect answer, a good SEO strategy consists of lots of things. However, using Keywords on your website is one of the most important parts. You want to make sure that the code and content of your website is search engine friendly and is relevant to search queries that users may include in their search terms, when looking for your particular company, service or product. The more relevant the words, the higher your company or website will appear on the search engine’s results page, that’s why keywords are your best friend!

Come back next week for the second instalment in our series, where we’ll be expanding on why keywords are important, and how to implement them better on your website!

Want to improve your SEO? Get in touch – let’s make it happen…

T: 01903 688789 E: makeithappen@mbsmih.com

Spruce Up Your Social Media Content For Spring

MOMENTUM Business Support Digital Marketing
Woman sitting outdoors on a blanket on the grass using her mobile phone and laptop

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Could your social media content do with a little refresh? Well, just in time for the start of Spring we are sharing some ideas that you can try to help rejuvenate your social media presence. 

Short, Sweet (But Powerful) Video

Breathe a little bit of life into your social media content with the power of video! Short video clips in particular are perfect. Whether it’s showcasing a new product launch or an exclusive behind the scenes clip, they’re easy to shoot from most mobile devices, require minimal (if any!) editing, but pack a serious punch when it comes to audience engagement. 

What’s Trending?

Tapping into trending topics is a fun way for your business’ online presence to look fresh and up to date, often instantly engaging with your followers. Obviously, trending topics are constantly changing across all platforms, so why not dedicate one day of the week to get involved in a topical conversation of your choice? 

Create Your Very Own Series

Give your audience something to look forward to by starting your very own series! Whether it’s a weekly or monthly ‘how to’ series, or ‘reasons why’ series, by providing consistent, relevant content you’ll build up a great engaging relationship with your followers – and they’ll get to know you better!

Share External Content

Don’t feel like you always have to shout about your own content –  it can be off-putting sometimes! Share posts from others within your industry, business friends or even your own followers – this could be anything from relevant news, photos, or articles, it helps to show that you are not all ‘push’ from your own agenda.

Polls, Polls, Polls!

Social media is essentially one big conversation, so why not take advantage of that and utilise Polls to get to know your audience better? You can ask a question, encourage feedback or views – it’s a super engaging way to add something a little different to your channels!

We hope we’ve inspired you! Why not give one of the above a go and let us know how you get on?

If you’d like to chat through your social media plans, we’d love to hear from you. Call 01903 688789 or Email makeithappen@mbsmih.com.