If you enjoy gardening—flowers, vegetables, or both—you might want to consider turning your hobby into a source of additional income for you and your family. Turning your green thumb into green in your bank account isn’t as difficult as you ...
Read More »Trending Topics: Marketing
Investing in Gold, Investing for the Future
There has always been a symbiotic relationship between investment and economic growth. Investors supply the capital that businesses need to expand and improve their operations, while businesses provide an opportunity for individual and institutional investors to increase their wealth. This ...
Read More »Helping Your Business Weather a Recession
Grim economic forecasts can trouble new small-business owners. But veteran entrepreneurs will tell you this is not the time to give up hope. Instead, it’s time to strategize so that your business will weather the recession. During a recession it is possible for your business to survive and thrive, when you make smart decisions.... In a tough economy, volume is important, and you want to keep your customers happy and coming back for more.
Read More »Marketing With Video, Part 1
It’s no longer good enough to have a website for your business. Everybody’s got one. The question is, how engaging is your website? For your small business to reach its peak potential in this competitive digital market, your website must fully engage your customers. Web video will help you to do just that. According to Nielson Research, over 70% of consumers watch videos online. Over half of those people will share the links to videos with others. Furthermore, 75% say they watch web videos...
Read More »Why Focus Groups Don’t Work
Focus groups have been used to test concepts for everything from political campaigns to the latest Hollywood movie idea. But often, too much clout is given to the information gathered in these focus groups. The fact of the matter is that focus groups really don’t work as they’re supposed to. Why? The answer is simple—there’s a large gap between what people say in a focus group and what they actually do in real life.
Read More »Develop a Marketing Plan for Optimum Success
Last week we helped you get started in writing your business plan. Today we’re going to cover what could be the most crucial part of that business plan – your marketing plan. Your marketing plan is not just important; it’s completely and utterly 100% necessary. An old Chinese proverb says: “To open a shop is easy. The difficult thing is to keep it open.” If you enjoy doing business and would like to keep your doors open for years to come, you must...
Read More »Track Your Marketing Efforts
One of the biggest keys to business success is a strong marketing plan. But it’s not enough to simply implement your marketing strategy; if you want to repeat your successes and avoid wasting money and effort, you’ll need to track your marketing efforts closely. Every marketing endeavor needs to be analyzed to find out what works and what doesn’t. One way of doing this is to track your return on investment (ROI). You can track your ROI for sales and for profits.
Read More »How to Get P.R. for Your Local-Service Business (Part 1)
Local businesses often find themselves operating with lean advertising budgets. This makes finding affordable, quality advertising a challenging task for even the most seasoned marketer. Adding to this challenge is the current climate and how today’s consumers feel about advertising in general. Consumers today are more cynical than ever before. Only a small percent of them have confidence in traditional advertising methods. Current research shows that less than 14% of consumers trust traditional advertising messages, while over 90% of people still trust
Read More »Reel in Customers With a Bait Piece
Want to significantly increase your sales and increase your customer response? If so, try using a bait piece in your marketing mix. Last week, I shared with you the importance of content marketing. Bait pieces are one way to extend ...
Read More »If You’re Not Content Marketing, You’re Not Marketing
Smart marketers understand that 20th century marketing is less effective with every passing year. TiVo enables TV watchers to skip the commercials. Newspaper circulation has shrunk. Even web users have learned to tune out the ads. That’s why, in the 21st century, content marketing is almost essential. Think of it this way. What is marketing? It’s the art of understanding exactly what your customers want and delivering it to them in a way that exists to grow your business. Relevant and unique content is one of the best ways ...
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