Business Blog for Company Owners

Our plan is to make 2014 a year of growth for Diamond Certified companies. To accomplish this, we’re growing our investment in key areas of the Diamond Certified Program. We’ll increase our directory circulation, redesign our custom brochures to feature color photos, officially launch Diamond Certified Experts (which helps build each company’s brand and sales by contributing their expertise to their community), and expand our general media and digital marketing to build even more influence for the Diamond Certified symbol. This expansion is a major undertaking, but like all our upgrades, Diamond Certified companies won’t be charged any additional fees.

“Strength to Strength” Just Got 40% Stronger
I’m pleased to announce that we will increase the print circulation of our Diamond Certified Directory Update series by 40%, Read more

On behalf of our Diamond Certified Program team, I want to wish you and your family a wonderful Holiday season. I’m really excited about our plans to grow the Diamond Certified Program in 2014. We’re doing it by heavily investing in four main areas:

1. We’re surging the power of the Diamond Certified symbol to differentiate Diamond Certified companies from local competitors by investing record amounts in digital marketing and partnerships, TV, and radio, as well as growing our Diamond Certified Preferred Consumer member base.
2. We’re redesigning our custom brochures and adding color photos to help increase transaction rates and referrals.

Read more

Our entire team at American Ratings Corporation wishes you and your loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving season. For me, this is the time of year to give thanks to special people and reflect on outstanding deeds—an ideal precursor for personal and business planning.

Besides focusing on family members and friends, I’d like to take stock of what we’ve achieved together in the Diamond Certified Program this year. I’m thrilled to report that both consumer awareness of and preference for Diamond Certified companies increased in 2013. Read more

As we work to hit our numbers for 2013, our minds naturally turn to planning for next year. To quote Stephen Covey in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, before jumping right in, you should “first seek to understand.” Here are a few diagnostic steps to take before planning your strategy and operations for 2014.

1. Call your company as a potential client. You can role-play with the employees who answer your phone questions, or better yet, “mystery shop” by using a friend who’s unknown to your staff. Take notes of whose attitudes and interactions are working and what needs to be improved. Sit down with staff members, review the results and get their ideas for improvement. Read more

If your company is like most, its core value proposition is essentially the same as it was a decade ago. Although your process and products have likely improved, your customer promise essentially hasn’t changed: to deliver your professional service with high levels of quality, on time and for a fair price. However, one thing that’s radically changed during this time is that now, almost all of your potential customers find and evaluate your business on the web before they buy. The change from Yellow Pages, old media and word of mouth is so dramatic, it’s as if customers are now beaming in from another planet!

The implications of this change are great. Read more

In this new digital age in which we operate, most of us share a nagging feeling that we aren’t doing enough new stuff to keep up with the times. This may very well be true, but I also suggest that you’re not doing enough of the right old stuff; that in this new media world, infusing your company with old-fashioned ways will help you stand out and pull ahead of your competitors.

Look, we’ve all felt the joy and sometimes the pain of interacting with other humans. Your potential customers are human and naturally nostalgic for the old-fashioned way of interaction that brought special joy to the past moments of their life. Read more

To play off an old adage, a website is a terrible thing to waste. The reality is, if you’re not trying to improve your website every year, you’re falling behind some of your competition. So, here’s your improvement for 2013. If you qualify for Diamond Certified, you’ll be able to add custom Diamond Certified Widgets to your site and instantly upgrade its performance.

What is a Diamond Certified Widget? It’s a small Diamond Certified Award box that’s placed on a company’s website to prove to visitors that it has scored Highest in Quality and earned Diamond Certified (see enclosed samples). If you qualify for Diamond Certified, your Widget will increase visitors’ confidence at the exact time and place that they’re researching your company. Read more

When I sit down to write you a monthly update, I always like to look back and see what I wrote one year ago as a point of reference. This month, I felt compelled to pay homage to the June 2012 headline and lead paragraphs. Here’s what I wrote last June:

Only one year has passed since this headline and we’ve already reached 50,000 Diamond Certified Preferred Consumers! These consumers are raising their hands and saying, “I first look for local Diamond Certified companies because they’re top-rated for quality and backed by the Diamond Certified Performance Guarantee.” Read more

Company owners who only focus on leads and sales (propositions) will, over time, be beaten in the marketplace by companies that consistently build and reinforce their meaningful brands. I’ll grant that some lead programs pay for themselves and you could point to particular sales campaigns that convinced certain prospects to choose a weak-branded company. Despite these seemingly additive marketing programs, companies that starve their commitments to building their brands will ultimately suffer a lethal combination of sales decline and margin squeeze.

Only meaningful brands command premium pricing.
Observe what prospective customers do; don’t be fooled by what they say. We can see that there’s a significant and mostly permanent sector of price bottom feeders, Read more

Life presents us with many riddles. Some of the most intriguing are those that are best solved by taking a path that’s counterintuitive—one that seems to take us in the opposite direction of our goal. We’ve read sage advice that espouses completely letting go of something in order to attract it, or combating an attack by embracing a foe. These are interesting to think about, and we’ve encountered or can imagine scenarios where these solved riddles actually play out in real life. So, this month I have a business riddle for you. What’s the best path to search out and attract new customers to your company? I’ll give you a hint: The best answer is not to get a metaphorical bullhorn and promote your message to the far corners of your market area. Read more