Cutting Edge Marketing from the Front Lines


If you’re looking for the future of small business marketing, look no further. Here are the top stories from the cutting edge with ideas ready for your next marketing campaign on the small business front lines. Got a tip, technique or strategy of your own you’d like to share? Leave a comment below and add to our list of marketing tips from small business leaders just like you.

Marketing Trends

The power of the simple text. Whether marketing for a “cause” or for your brand or business, don’t underestimate the power of the simple text message. With other marketing technologies exploding out there, Joe Waters observes, it remains the one kind of communications almost everyone in every demographic knows how to use. Have you considered text messaging for your business? Huffpost Impact

Is Google Plus the new frontier? The search giant has thrown down the challenge with its new social platform containing many features that may already be familiar to Facebook and other social network users. But the question is whether the new social universe created by Google can attract the overall volume and level of acceptance that makes it appealing as a marketing platform. memeburn

Latest Tech

StumbleUpon upgrade holds new possibilities. Marketers know the unique power of StumbleUpon to drive big traffic in the social universe. Though, as Cynthia Boris explains, this traffic comes at a price. So how will a new iPad upgrade of the popular social bookmarking site affect its overall effectiveness as a tool for online marketing? Marketing Pilgrim

Online marketing hits the mainstream. A few years ago, Emily Ditman’s full-time job driving traffic to sites operated by the hotel industry might have seemed as improbable as her ambitions for a professional career in dance. Today, online marketing is an increasingly important part of promoting businesses large and small. What’s the next step in marketing your small business? The New York Times

Tricks of the Trade

Twitter tricks for maximum exposure. When outspoken rapper Lupe Fiasco suddenly gave up his Twitter account just one day before fellow recording artist Nikki Jean’s most recent album hit stores allowing her to tweet to more than 722 thousand followers in his place, at least one fan suspected an ulterior motive. Was Lupe’s social media burnout really a clever marketing ploy for Nikki? SOOH.com

The art of silence. Just as in a conversation the things you leave out can be just as important as what you say, so marketer Carolyn Higgins insists your marketing message can be improved by the right ommissions. What messages are you incorporating into your marketing campaign? Are there things that would be better left unsaid? Fortune Marketing Company

Contributor of the Week. We didn’t ask her to, we swear, but Susan Oakes did an interesting analysis of a new effort on our sister site BizSugar designed to drive involvement on both the main community and Facebook. We won’t yammer on about it because Susan does a pretty comprehensive analysis and we’re all VERY proud of how it’s going. M4B Marketing

News & Comment

Cutting marketing in a tough economy? While no one could fault businesses for belt tightening and trying to do more with less in lean times, the logic of cutting back on marketing in an effort to preserve already reduced profits seems somewhat misguided. Marketing need not be expensive but it is the one part of your business absolutely imperative when seeking to boost the bottom line. The Guardian

Customer service as a marketing tool. A recent survey suggests some American consumers may be willing to pay at least 10 percent more for good customer service making it an important potential product differentiation when marketing any product or service. Have you thought about how your customer service impacts your bottom line? Are there ways you could increase the level of customer service in your business? Daily Markets

Old School Solutions

Humanizing your small business? If customer service is a form of marketing, then blogging for your business is a step in the same direction. Using a business blog to engage customers directly on a personal level remains the very essence of customer service and relationship building. Are you using a business blog to market and provide customer service for your brand? Canada One

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