Small Business Trends

You and your company have a voice and content marketing gives you a chance to use that voice to connect a relevant message/solution to your target audience.

Content marketing — blogs, social media, articles, case studies, videos, infographics, etc — let’s people hear your message. It gives them a chance to see who you are, what you have and how Read More

We’re all hearing a lot of talk right now about content marketing. We’ve already told you why you shouldn’t fear it and even offered up some content marketing ideas to help get you started. However, you still may be asking yourself, what’s the point? What does content marketing mean and why is it so important to your business?

The Read More

Congratulations – you just wrote a book.  But if you think all the work is done, think again.  As an author of a business book, you still have work ahead of you.  You have to market your book.  After all, these days it’s up to the author to do most of the marketing.  Publishers provide a limited amount of marketing.

As a small business owner, your online reputation matters. More than you might think. In fact, research shows that a negative online reputation can cost you customers. But, other studies have shown that a positive reputation can actually help you gain them. Read More

That one company mentioned? It happens to be mine. Early on, much wasn’t being spent on marketing simply because the funds weren’t available. Some dabbling was done with the usual suspects: the Yellow Pages, online ads, etc. None seemed to do more to build my brand online. So now, five years later, surprisingly nothing is being invested in marketing yet Read More

Nothing represents your company and brand more than your business name. It’s the cornerstone of your business and shapes everything that follows – from marketing tone to a customer’s first impressions.

Have you protected this valuable asset? How well do you understand trademark law? Maybe you’re just starting your business. Maybe you’ve been running a successful business Read More

Can you promote your business without being pushy? And if so how?  In response to The Paradox: Doing (or Not Doing) the Work to Live Your Dream, Martin Lindeskog left a comment saying that he’s “allergic to the pushy sales people.”  I am too.

And because of this allergy, I certainly don’t want Read More

“Know what the feel and heart of your brand is.” ~ Kelle Boyd, Founder of Ann Kelle Designs.  It always comes back to a decision.  Everything about our lives and businesses comes back to core decisions. What is your business? Who do you serve? How do you serve them?  What is your customer service standard? What’s the best way to Read More

Emarketer reports that:

“Interactive marketing is becoming a larger part of the marketing mix, and Forrester estimates that by 2016, online advertising spend will be equivalent to television spend today. Marketers will spend $77 billion on interactive marketing by 2016.”

According to StrongMail’s annual marketing trends survey, conducted by Zoomerang, the majority Read More

If confusion and overwhelm was an outfit, I would tell you to take it off, because it doesn’t look good on you. If it’s old, worn out and faded, then let it go.

What you wear should enhance what you have instead of playing up your weakness. In fashion, the goal is to wear what looks good Read More