Photo courtesy of thienzieyung When starting the branding process with a new client, we always start with the mission. The mission is the one thing on which all other things in the business are based, and that includes marketing. Yes, we know. Business has largely blown up the mission and bastardized it into a mostly…
What should you do to market your business in 2012? To answer that question, I created this short video for Network Solutions’ 12 Ways to Makeover Your Small Business in 2012 series. (email subscribers and feed readers, click here if you don’t see the video: Sharpen Your Brand) The Rules of Marketing A new year…
Where oh where did the time go? Here we are in 2012 with another great year of marketing ahead of us. But before we get too far down the highway, let’s take a look back at the best small business marketing articles of 2011. I’ve organized the list around the four essential spots of small…
You understand the value of word of mouth. It’s free advertising and it’s powerful advertising because it’s unbiased advertising. But do you understand how to get more of it? The answer is magic, specifically magic moments. My first article for the Washington Post was recently published and it has more on how to create magic…
A while back I asked the question: Are you wasting your time on Facebook and Twitter? It was still the new frontier of social media marketing when businesses were wondering whether or not they should create a Facebook page. Now, by varying estimates, about 3/4ths of all businesses have some sort of social marketing involvement….
Guest post by Dave Thomas For many retailers, the holidays are the sink or swim time for their businesses. Put together a winning retail season and they can either go into 2012 with a surplus and a winning attitude or at least have broken even to end a difficult year. Come up with a losing…
A friend just completed seminary and is in the process of starting a new church. He and the church-planting committee have set out to do some research. They are visiting other churches in the area, surveying and talking to people to find out what the people need. After all, conventional wisdom tells us to find…
Guest post by Nickolay Lamm Don’t miss out on free marketing advice. For updates on new articles: Receive The Marketing Spot by Email or subscribe in a blog reader. How can you make your Adwords campaign profitable? Anyone with a website can get an Adwords account and instantly start getting traffic. However, whether or not…
Why branding? What is the value of a brand? The simple answer is this: Brands help customers make choices. [Reference: What is a Brand?] Just look at it from the customer’s perspective. A customer is having some problems with her car and she doesn’t know what’s wrong with it. She begins her search for a…
Why do you use social media? Because it’s free, because everyone else is doing it? Because you feel that’s where the customers are? The most pertinent reason to engage in social media marketing for your business is to get more business. Image courtesy of IsaacMao Social media channels like Facebook are a marketing tool only…