What You Missed at the 12th Annual Moving Your Business Forward Conference: Part II

This conference made me think- at one glance, how would someone view your business.

Co-Founder of Pencilworx Design Group Sherrod Shackelford made it clear during his session on Branding Your Way to Higher Profit how business based on perception. To make his point, he presented an image of a well-constructed website to the audience. Based on the appearance of the website, the audience assumed the business made between $1 million and $30. In reality, the business had not started, but based off the website alone the audience assumed it was a multi-million organization.

From once glance alone, a person should be able to know what your business is about based on your business card and its logo. The logo should not be over-defined because it should not outshine the slogan which is a business owner’s place in the market.

Co-founder Lavon Lewis reminded business owners the success of their business doesn’t rely on perception alone, but on how well they know their audience. At 85 percent, the majority of consumer purchases are influenced by women. This statistic can allow those in the branding department to change their technique to appeal to their audience who are most likely women.

Each session of the 12^th Annual Moving Your Business Forward Conference was as informative and intriguing as the next; divided into compact sessions, presenters were able to provided enough information for business owners to take the next step toward elevating their business.

Session I began with panelist Todd A. Gray, Sylvester Johnson, Crystal Khalil and Demond Richardson speaking on the “Value of Supplier Diversity and Partnership”. They encouraged those in the audience to look at supplier diversity as a way to expand their business, instead of just another department in an organization.

Owner of BizLynks Consulting Group R. Pamela Alexander lead Session II on “Email and Social Engagement Campaigns that Drive Action”. She defined marketing the purpose of marketing simply- being able to elicit a physical and measurable response. Alexander not only provided tips on how to design a marketing campaign, but she also provided tips on how to gain feedback:

• Every campaign should have a call to action
• Place the call to action at the top of the newsletter or email
• Two keys things to get your emails opened: your FROM line and your SUBJECT line. 30 percent will open based on the subject line and 60 percent will open based on the from line.
• Use a quick survey or poll to receive feedback
• When you have an event, online registration is the best way to collect contact information

Atlanta Tribune technology guru Brent Leary and IBM’s Luis Cueno spoke on “How to Elevate Your Business” in Session III. Leary told audience members, 80 percent of executives said their customers are changing the way they obtain goods and services. If customers are changing, that means it’s time for businesses to also make a change.

The cloud is now used by most businesses because it allows business owners to overcome hurdles such as cost and do bigger and better things with their business. Leary used a “Data by the Minute” graph to display the increase in mobile devices over the years:

• 2.4 billion people are online or on a mobile device
• 277,000 tweets per minute
•  2,460,000 shares per minute on Facebook
• 70% of hotel bookings are done through a mobile device and are for same-day stays

Leary ended his session by stressing to business owners to view their customers as something more than a transaction in order to have a more successful business.