Articles about the many facets of marketing for the small business owner or marketer. Tips and information on branding, email marketing, social media marketing, marketing schedules, building your website, defining your market and more.
More mileage from your content is crucial in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Repurposing allows you to reach wider audiences and reinforce your message without starting from scratch. Here’s how: Choose Evergreen Content: Focus on content with lasting value, like guides, case studies,…
Get ready to ditch the dull and dive into the dynamic! 2024 is all about websites that pop, engage, and tell unforgettable stories. Here are the top 5 trends that will have your visitors glued to the screen: 1. Micro-tastic Animations: Gone…
Businesses need to respond to all reviews, good and bad. The good reviews are easy! Use the opportunity to highlight your relationship with the customer and how happy they are with your (amazing!) product. Bad reviews, however, we dread. Make the most…
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) ROAS is the sales you get from running an ad. It is simply read as revenue from ad campaign vs. ad campaign expenditure. If you had, for example, an ad campaign that cost $1000, and you received…
You can't do them all! With the small amount of time most business people can spend on social media, you can’t be effective on all platforms. Choose one or two that match your target audience. Once you determine what your best customers…
If you'd like better results from your biggest ad out there, your website, make sure you are not annoying your clientele! Check your site’s manners here. Limit pop-ups, and ads, such as asking for newsletter signup, to one appearance per visit. Most…
Use this list to review your website for features you may be missing. A Grade-A Website Is: Well-designed: A great website is visually appealing and easy to navigate. It should use clear and concise language, and its layout should be logical and easy…
It costs more time and effort to get a new customer than keep an existing one. What are you doing to keep your customers connected and happy? Review your customer follow-up and consider adding a new touchpoint. It is frightfully easy to…
Before people make a purchase with a new company, they often check them out online to confirm they are a credible company. Be sure your address and hours are current, and that you have posted recently. Check these on your website, as…
Social media works best when it is social. Leave comments on acquaintances' business posts, and respond to comments on your posts. Make conversation! When you comment and start a conversation on a business post, you are also doing a favor for that…
Check your reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and other places people comment. Did you respond to both positive and negative reviews? With negative reviews especially, respond in an apologetic and helpful way. To get more positive reviews, share the link to your…
Your Instagram 'Bio,' Facebook 'About' and other platform company descriptions are important! Make sure you are happy with what you are presenting there and include your keywords. Your Bio on Instagram, “About” on Facebook, and descriptions on other social media accounts are…
Are you sending out promotional emails? Take a look at what is getting the most views. If you are not, consider what you could include in a weekly or monthly email that would keep you in mind with your customers. Your email…
How often do you post on Social Media? You want to post often enough that potential customers feel you are engaging your customers. At a minimum, we recommend posting monthly to show you are actively there. Post at least weekly to appear…
Search Google for your company. Your Google Business Profile is what comes up on the right side of the search results on a computer or at the top on a mobile device. Is yours correct? Check your listing for the correct phone,…
Take five minutes to review your website for outdated or incorrect information. Your website is your online storefront, so it's important to keep it up-to-date with fresh content that your target audience will find interesting and helpful. Make sure that you don’t…
Toledo Website Design Looking for expert website creation services in Toledo? Look no further! Our skilled team of designers and developers can create a stunning, user-friendly website that perfectly showcases your brand and engages your target audience. From custom layouts and graphics…
An essential element of sales success is confidence. When you question whether you have what it takes to run your business or feel inadequate compared to your peers, you have imposter syndrome. You may begin a new job with the "Fake it…
Targeting the right people is an essential element in every marketing plan. No business can afford to target everyone, but for small businesses targeting a niche market is a matter of success or failure. What's your target? "Homeowners," "Moms of teens," and…
Building a business is more than producing and pricing your product; it is based on relationships. People you know can help you with ideas, inspiration, and referrals. So, how can you make your circle of influence bigger? The only way to build…
Are you looking for ideas to freshen up your social media posts? The first goal of social media is to create conversation and community. Only about 20% of your posts should be promotional. So how do you fill in the other 80%?…
Logos talk a lot, but is your saying the right things? Make sure your logo is making the right first impression to your audience. Here are some top considerations. The audience is key. Your image should speak to your audience. You wouldn't…
Another thing to add to your to-do list? Yep. Here's why this task, adding photos to your Google listing is worth your while. Build Trust When you have included a picture of the outside and inside of your business, your products, and…
Get This Email? "The Google My Business app is being replaced." Did you receive an email suggesting you should "start using Google Maps and Search to keep your Business Profile up to date and connect with customers?" What's in a name? Don't…
Word of mouth is a vital sales tool; 9 out of 10 people trust what a customer says about a business more than what a company says about itself. More engaging than written reviews, testimonial videos are customers speaking honestly about their interaction with…
To get word-of-mouth referrals, you provide a great buying experience, a quality product, and customer-centric service. (Quite a feat!) After that positive experience, your customer is likely to return and say good things about your company to friends. This is organic word-of-mouth…
Does direct mail feel outdated to you? Think again. You may want to consider it! Fewer companies are using direct mail, giving your campaign increased impact. Studies show direct mail pieces are handled at least once, stay in the house longer, and…
Today's marketing tip is to take a look at your company's listing on Bing.com. This search engine, like Google, allows you to post hours, photos, and a description. Your FREE bing listing is advertising and only takes a few minutes to set…
Mailchimp is a well know email marketing platform. There are good reasons it is so popular. The Zapier blog offers the following reasons: Mailchimp has a generous free plan including: --email one group for up to 2,000 contacts; --six starter email templates;…
Do you use a program, perhaps specific to your industry, for scheduling, customer data, or your website? I'm running into more and more clients who are not using of some of the features that would help to make a better-branded customer experience.…
Email Delivery Getting to the recipient's mailbox is the first step. The quality of your email list, bounce rates, spam reports, and more can stop your email from getting through. Email Deliverability The second step happens after the email has made it…
With our lives full of distractions, you'll be glad you focused for a short while on your marketing goals for the coming year. Keep it simple, but PLAN Something! Creating a business marketing plan for the year encourages you to think of…
What business strategies do professionals commonly recognize as successful, regardless of industry? A recent survey and report picked these 10, in no particular order. How many are you using? Top 10 B2C Marketing Strategies Social Networks and Viral Marketing -providing users with content they find…
Inbound marketing is a very effective B2B Marketing technique. It starts to build from content marketing, and rides along the tracks of social media. These marketing elements combine to make a very effective tool for business to business marketing. The process looks…
What's the most important aspect of a brand? Helpfulness! Create engaging ads that demonstrate your brand's benefits in daily life. Images or videos of people using a product perform better. An additional bump in responses was the result of including diversity and…
Top 10 B2C Marketing Strategies Social Networks and Viral Marketing: remaining visible and reaching new people through friends of friends.Paid Media Advertising: paid ads or editorial content in publications or programs your customers frequent.Internet Marketing: Online ads, your website, affiliate websites, and…
Strong brands stick in our minds because of repetition of the same logo, fonts, colors, and images. They become instantly recognizable, bringing us a clear sense of reliability and security. Developing a consistent brand starts with defining your brand. Create a style guide,…
One way to increase the reach of your social media efforts is to find methods to reach new groups of followers. 32 Marketing Hacks, an article from Monster Insights, is chock-full of ideas to improve your website. Here are some ideas they recommend…
Take a gander at these tips to make the most of your existing website pages by adjusting the wording. There are more details in the article 32 Marketing Hacks from Monster Insights. You spent time creating it - don't just let it just sit…
The primary method to get post shares is to make the content something sharable! Think of the posts you share. What can you create that YOU would share? 32 Marketing Hacks, an article from Monster Insights, is chock-full of ideas to improve your…
32 Marketing Hacks, an article from Monster Insights, is chock-full of ideas to improve your website. (Monster Insights is a WordPress Analytics tool.) Take a gander at these tips to boost engagement and build your brand. To get maximum website traffic, only…
You can get overwhelmed with data from your prospects, customers, and online presence. The plethora of information causes many businesses to do one of two things: freeze up with data paralysis or lack focus, wasting time and resources. To make your analysis…
Hold your slice of the spotlight These five techniques can help your small business retain its part of the spotlight, summarized from this become.co article. Study the Competition Understanding how your big competition operates can provide you with valuable information on industry trends…
How do you make the most sales with the least effort? Consider the 80/20 principle (Pareto's Law). The principle states that 80% of results are returned from 20% of effort, which applies in many aspects of life. In marketing and sales, you…
Marketing is more than just your ads and flyers. Successful marketing includes all the touchpoints you have with your customer. This article from B2B Marketing summarizes the 10 most important marketing tools nicely. Put your energy into these ten first! Online identity. All companies need…
You've heard or found out that Canva is a great tool. It turns out regular people can make good-looking posts in a snap! Follow these tips from Canva (shortened by Kerri) to get better design results. No graphic designers were harmed in the making…
While it seems it should be simple, Managing a not-for-profit's social media can be quite a challenge. Here are some steps to make it easier. (They work for businesses, too!) Find out what your audience is using. A simple poll or a…
An automated or "drip" email campaign is a series of emails automatically sent to your subscribers based on a specified action. Automated campaigns save you repetitive work and remove the potential for forgetting to send them. You set it and forget it.…
Do you use email for marketing? How about cold emails? The following summarizes an interesting article by a business owner who discovered what works with her email marketing. Perhaps it will work for you.
This week continues with four more ideas for investing time into marketing from the Wordstream article on low-budget marketing. Add these to your options: Use free trials and packages to begin "pay-per-click" marketing. Check out free advertising opportunities here. Don't jump into too fast, though.…