Do you have a website?

The first thing I do when I am interested in a business or service is look them up on the web and you can bet most of your clients do too. Now if that business does not have a website, it is very unlikely that I will continue to try to find out anything else about them.

Today, website are like business cards that your clients can't lose. They can range from a single page that includes your basic contact information to a fully interactive site with an online application and mortgage calculators or real time listings. The important thing is having a place where your clients can always find your information - from anywhere.

Check out these articles from Enprepreneur.com, an excellent resource for anyone in business.

Why You Need a Website
Taking Your Business Online
Creating a Website for Your Service Business

...and remember that we are always available to meet with you to discuss what kind of website is right for you.

For Mortgage Professionals:
We have a partnership with etrafficers, a web design company that specializes in mortgage websites. Here are some sample websites they created for us:
Classic Package
Value Package
Professional Package

If you would like us to help you set up your website with etrafficers, order this product: Professional Mortgage Website Setup

Branding - you can do it!

Happy Monday! As we here at Belladia have been designing a new logo for ourselves, I have become very aware of how we are bombarded with designs and logos everyday. Everything has a logo associated with it or plastered on it. Don't even get me started on the corporate branding of everything on the planet - the Dunkin Donuts Center? Really? (Sorry, a little New England rant. Lets see, the Southern California equivalent would be the Staples Center or the iPayOne Center.) But what big companies have taken to extremes (logos temporarily tattooed on professional athletes skin!), is an essential way to not just to promote your company or product, but to control the perception of your company in the minds of your customers.

Now I know what you're saying, its great that Coca-Cola has a fantastic brand that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but they also spend millions of dollars developing and maintaining it. I can't afford to have a professionally designed branding strategy.

Thats where we come in! Branding doesn't have to be a giant, multi-million dollar campaign. The key is consistency - in the look of your marketing pieces and in the frequency in which you send them out. Developing a consistent look can range anywhere from using the same colors (check out the product sets on our website) to having us design a template for you. We will be happy to sit down with you and talk about your goals and help you develop your own branding strategy.

Loyal Customers

If you've ever had a client that tells everyone how wonderful you and your services are, then you know how valuable this can be to your business (and your self esteem). Past client referrals are not only quality leads but they don't require you to do any work!

"So, how do I create these kinds of customers?" you ask.

Start by reading Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. I highly recommend buying this book and reading it cover to cover. But for now I will share with you their six tenets of customer evangelism.

The authors studied Southwest Airlines, Krispy Creme Doughnuts, Build-A-Bear Workshops, Dallas Mavericks, O'Reilly & Associates, SolutionPeople and IBM and discovered that they all shared these common approaches to creating Customer Evangelists:

1. Customer Plus-Delta: Continuously gather customer feedback.
2. Napsterize knowledge: Make it a point to share knowledge freely.
3. Build the buzz: Expertly build word-of-mouth networks.
4. Create Community: Encourage communities of customers to meet and share.
5. Make bite size chunks: Devise specialized, smaller offerings to get customers to bite.
6. Create a cause: Focus on making the world, or an industry, better.

Now you'll have to read the book for further explanation but the point is that marketing to your past clients, your possible "Customer Evangelists", has the potential for a much greater return than marketing to strangers. So don't forget about the clients that already like you and keep in contact with them. They can turn into your best sales people.

Buy Creating Customer Evangelists by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba on Amazon

We have a Blog!

Don't worry - we're not really sure what it means either! The important thing is that we are going to use this - lets call it an online journal - this online journal to keep you updated on new products offered by Belladia. We also plan to post articles and links that we think will be of interest to you. In addition to this you will have the opportunity to post comments and let us know how we're doing! Check back soon for our first real post!

-Lisa