Small Business Trends

Not to get sentimental on you, but a new year is quickly approaching. I know, it just sort of sneaks up on you. And with that new year c0kes the perfect opportunity to evaluate your brand, look at the value you’re bringing your customers and recommit yourself to improving upon that over the next 12 months. But before we can Read More

It seems we like to name everything lately. So, if you didn’t know, the Saturday after Black Friday and before Cyber Monday is now Small Business Saturday.  I was asked to write a post on promos and campaigns small businesses can run to capitalize on the special day, but something else is on my mind today.

Marketing that makes a difference doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and effort. Here are three questions that help get you to the heart of effective marketing:

1. What do I get for promoting your product?

In “The Cost of Free Publicity: How Much Is Too Little?,” Yvonne DiVita addresses the idea of large Read More

Email is not dead. Using email newsletters to stay top of mind with your audience and keep them up to date on what’s new and exciting at your company remains a great way to build new and repeat sales. However, before you can use email marketing as a way to leverage visitors and direct them to your website, you first Read More

On Thursday, October 20, 2011 at 8 PM Eastern time I’ll be on a Twitter chat hosted and sponsored by FedEx Office®. And I’d love to have you join us! Bring your questions, bring your expertise, bring your advice for others in the small biz community.

The topic is going to be branding – how to Read More

Griffin Hospital earns customer loyalty, and accolades, by creating customer experiences. Griffin Hospital’s efforts to understand the lives of patients and their families has earned them extreme customer loyalty. Their goal was to imagine what it would be like to be the patient so they could improve the experience for both patients and their families. But Read More

Last year, I spoke to author, Entrepreneur.com writer and social media expert Starr Hall. We discussed who the best people were to target and how to use all of my platforms and relationships to get the best coverage and promotion.

In talking about people to target, Starr said:

“Make sure they are master Read More

Small businesses advertising in their own local market often operate under the “big local lie.” It’s common to see small business owners who have tricked themselves into believing that they don’t need to advertise at all and can rely solely on referrals for lead generation and repeat sales.

These small businesses will quickly discover that relying Read More

The hordes of cars waiting to fill up their tanks at Chirag Patel’s eight-pump gas station in Georgia alarmed me. Had something happened in the world and I missed it because my radio was turned off today?  I pulled in and at first I didn’t hear the music or smell the hot dogs because I was so fixated on the Read More

In case you haven’t seen it yet, the Pew Research Center just released a very interesting report that takes a look at how people learn about local communities and where they go first for information. In the report are many valuable insights for small business owners to learn from and potentially incorporate into their marketing mix. In case Read More