
How to Get Free Online Advertising
So unless you’ve been living under the same rock that allowed me to miss the whole Book of Eli thing – what a great movie, why didn’t someone tell me – you’ve by now seen the Old Spice Man commercials. The buzz around them is how much “free” exposure this campaign has received. But here’s [...]

Why Search Marketing is Like Dating
When I was a teenager, I learned a valuable lesson about dating from one of the Wise Men in my life. He told me if my goal was to get a girl to go on a date with me (I know quaint, huh? Oh for simpler times), I had two options. Strategy Number One involved [...]

Teaching Your People to Say “No” (Maybe Learning it Yourself)
Believe it or not, having the option to say no, and even better giving this option to your employees, is one of the quickest ways to a lot of yes in your business. Popular opinion is that you always, always, always want to be able to say yes to your customers. The problem with that [...]

Steps Your Competition is Taking with Email (& Facebook) in 2010
2010 seems to be the year when most businesses here in southern Oregon are really starting to understand that their customers actually do want to hear from them. The thing is, starting the process may actually damage your customer relationship. Chances are you will make the mistakes that the wider industry have already stumbled over, learned from, [...]

Email – It’s Higher Better Use
Everyone knows what email is for in small businesses – its to blast out random emails to random customers and prospects at random intervals in hopes of consistant revenue. You’ve experienced enough examples of this strategy to know that it is more commonplace than we would hope. Or worse even, businesses that are afraid of [...]

Your Customers Have Smart Phones. Now What?
The last year has really been fun to be in marketing hasn’t it? Think of all the “shiny new toys” that have come of age in the last year. Facebook, Twitter, and of course the iPhone, Droid, Blackberry and numerous other smart phones. All these new and exciting ways to reach out to your customers. Of [...]

Most managers’ time is actually spent putting out fires. In fact, many of managers actually look forward to these emergencies – its when they can really shine. Only that’s not the highest, best use of their time.

Creating Effective Website Content
Let’s start at square one on this topic. Before we even talk about what you want to write about in your website, we need to understand what it is your customers will search for. The question to ask yourself is, “What will my customer type into the search box in the search engine?” Be careful, [...]

Your Customer is More Than an @
The economy’s been down for so long many, many local businesses are now looking for that silver bullet that is going to finally pull them up and out and back to the promised land. In 2010, it seems the pull is towards social media – primarily Facebook and Twitter. And the rush in this direction, [...]

How Not to Grow Your Email List
Email can be a great way to stay in contact with your customers and prospects. In 2010, many people will try and tell you that email is dying – soon to be replaced by Twitter. Tell them that you talked to me and you don’t believe them. It is darn difficult to build customer loyalty [...]
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